2 Timothy 1:1–4:22

This is the last of all Paul's writings. His own life was about to be poured out in martyrdom for Christ's sake, and so he pours out his heart to his beloved child Timothy. We could not expect this in any letter but a personal one. There is a simplicity and reality here that is beautiful. He felt these sorrows keenly: all in Asia turned away from him (ch. 1:15); others overthrew the faith of some by false doctrine (ch. 2:17, 18); and even those closer to him deserted him when he stood before the Roman Emperor (ch. 4:10, 16). Yet the calm triumph of faith shines out brightly all through this letter.

In other letters he presented himself as a "servant" (Rom. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; Titus 1:1). But here he views himself in his apostolic character, as one sent and commissioned by the Lord Himself. As such he had authority — an authority that no unfaithfulness in others could cancel. He might be, as indeed he was, forsaken, if not refused, by many; but the authority entrusted to him survived. The same is true today about gift. Wherever a gift is present, the privilege and responsibility to use it remain, even if the saints do not acknowledge it.

The words "according to" hold their more ordinary sense here. They mean "in keeping with", rather than "in order to bring about" or "with a view to the fulfilment". They do not state the object and intention of the apostleship, but its character... Timothy never needed that comforting, strengthening knowledge of life more than he did in view of the horrors and dangers this letter looks at — and neither do the faithful. If anything is real in a world of empty show, it is the life which is in Christ; it is eternal, and it is meant to overcome by faith.

Jesus Christ sent Paul to serve in this world of death, with the fulfilment of the promise of life in view — the life we see in all its fulness in Christ Jesus in glory. As so often with the Apostle Paul, he views "life" in its fulness in glory, and in this sense he can speak of it as a promise. No ruin of the church can touch this life that is in Christ Jesus and that belongs to every believer.

In nature life is an immense force, but the life in Christ Jesus is unconquerable. Every form of natural life meets its match in the end, and DEATH conquers it — the life of Adam, which is human life, included. The life in Christ is beyond the reach of death. He became the Fountain-head of life to others as One who had died and risen again. God promised that life before the world began (see Titus 1:2) and brought it to light in the gospel. Its full fruit will appear in ages yet to come.

This life is unchanging, secured in Christ Jesus by the unchangeable promise of God. That thought was bound to bring powerful comfort to his soul. It is well to keep these two things distinct. As to life and salvation, God will keep every believer through faith by His power (see 1 Peter 1:3-5). But the place of testimony can be lost, and often is. A group or a single believer may forfeit it through unfaithfulness, or by giving in to the influences of this present evil age.

The older translation reads "To Timothy, my dearly beloved son." More exactly it is "[my] beloved child." In the first letter Paul calls him "[my] true child in the faith," marking him out as one who walked in Paul's own footsteps as to the truth. Here Paul expresses his own heart for the one who had served with him in the gospel, as a son serves with his father. The Apostle's heart truly clung to Timothy at such a moment of sorrow. Pouring out his heart like this became the basis for the appeals and urgings he was about to make to his beloved child. The method is divine. It is always God's way to show the depth of His love for His people before He gives them words of guidance or correction.

It is precious to see how the pressure of affliction draws out the heart's affections all the more. Here the apostle addresses Timothy as "my beloved child," and not, as in the first letter, "my true child in the faith." This would surely comfort and strengthen Timothy's heart at such a time.

Paul wishes Timothy "grace," the divine favour that is enough to lift a person above any circumstances. He wishes him "mercy," God's compassion shown to him inside those circumstances. And he wishes him "peace," the calm of soul God gives, so that he can walk through everything in unbroken, untroubled communion with the Lord Jesus. This blessing rests on the unity of the Father and the Son. It comes from no other source, and there it is found perfectly.

When the Holy Spirit sends greetings to churches, He never mentions mercy. He says only "grace and peace." But when He addresses an individual, He adds "mercy." That word assumes the need, the constant wants, the difficulties, the trials and the dangers of individual believers. Timothy was in Ephesus, with savage wolves attacking from outside and false teachers rising inside. He needed mercy, so that he would be kept. As the days grow darker and the turning away from the faith grows plainer, individual believers need mercy upon mercy, to stand and to hold their ground.

Grace refers more to the source and character of the sentiment; mercy to the state of the person who is its object. Grace may give me glory; mercy contemplates some need in me. Mercy is great in the greatness of the need; grace in the thought of the person exercising it.

Grace is the general word for that energy and outflow of divine goodness which rises above the evil and ruin of men, and loves despite it all. That is why it rightly comes first in the greeting every time, whether the letter goes to a gathering of believers or to individual believers. "Mercy" then takes its proper place, asking God to look with pity on individual weakness, need, or danger. So it appears not only in 1 and 2 Timothy, but also, unusually and for a special purpose, in Jude.

The dear apostle was beginning to feel the chilling influence that was fast creeping over the professing church. He was tasting the bitterness of disappointed hopes. Many deserted him. They had once claimed to be his friends and partners in that glorious work to which he had given all the energy of his great soul. They were becoming "ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, and of His prisoner." They did not stop being Christians altogether, or give up the Christian profession. But they turned their backs on Paul, and left him alone in the day of trial.

Paul had served God, from his forefathers, with pure conscience, before he had known a fellow Christian. This he could continue to do though deserted by all his Christian companions.

He had served God, following in the steps of his forefathers, with a pure conscience. In every way he was a vessel made for honour. For more than one generation his ancestors showed a good conscience. Their personal devotion, founded on the truth, showed itself in the service of God. Paul was not judging the inward condition of each generation here. He was describing their character.

The apostle thanks God — the same God he had served from his forefathers. This recognizes the truth he had known before Christianity came, the truth he had obeyed "with pure conscience."

Paul could speak of serving God from his forefathers with a pure conscience. That is, he never defiled his conscience by doing what he knew to be wrong. He was true to the light he had. Yet, as he admits elsewhere, his light was once so poor that he opposed Christ with conscientious zeal.

Before his conversion Paul had a pure conscience. He even persecuted the church without his conscience condemning him. But when he came into the presence of the Lord, on the road to Damascus, he discovered that his pure conscience had not been a reliable guide. Only when the conscience is pure in the presence of God can we rely on it to guide us rightly.

The subject of the Apostle's thanksgiving is, "that without ceasing I have remembrance of you in my prayers night and day." It is a striking way to put it, and few believers would say it that way. Perhaps we are less mindful than he was that we depend entirely on the grace of God for the power to remember anyone constantly in prayer. So Paul gives thanks that he had been able to bear up Timothy before the Lord. That is a sure sign too, since he wrote these words under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that Timothy needed his prayers.

Paul did not simply pray for Timothy for a few days after leaving him, and then forget: it was a continuing matter. Night is mentioned first, before day. No doubt this shows that he passed through times of darkness and loneliness without cooling the warmth of prayer, and that in the more pleasant circumstance of "day" he did not neglect it either.

It was not merely a gracious affection for his sorrowing and anxious fellow-worker; he had the remembrance of Timothy in his prayers unceasingly, while night and day he longed to see him. Both were true. One cannot imagine a grosser delusion than that faith destroys affection.

The ordinary Greek word for longing is never used in the New Testament. A preposition is added to it, which gives the idea of "straining after" the thing longed for. One writer translates it "yearning"; another calls it "homesick longing." ... Paul, in the dungeon at Rome, passionately longed to see Timothy.

We are not told what made Timothy weep. It was probably at some parting — perhaps when he said goodbye to Paul, leaving him in prison, and went off to his own service. Whenever it was, it shows that Paul's affection was fully returned. No ordinary tie bound the hearts of these two servants of the Lord together.

Circumstances of pressure and sorrow had the precious effect of drawing out the longing of Paul's heart to see Timothy. Timothy's very character was such as to be a comfort to him. And his tears — no doubt connected with the public breaking down of Christian testimony, and departure from Paul's teaching — affected Paul so deeply that he would not forget them.

Two leading things in Timothy drew out the love and confidence of Paul. First, he remembered his tears; second, he remembered his sincere faith. The tears of Timothy proved that he was a man of spiritual depth and affection, who felt the low and broken condition of those who profess Christ. His sincere faith proved that he was able to rise above all the evil, in obedience to God and with confidence in Him.

It was not only a gracious affection for his sorrowing and anxious fellow-worker. He also remembered Timothy in his prayers without ceasing, while night and day he longed to see him. Both were true. You could not imagine a greater delusion than the idea that faith destroys affection.

When in prison for Christ's sake, Paul knew what would bring joy to his heart... Timothy was like-minded, and had shed tears in sympathy with the Apostle. His coming would fill Paul's cup with joy. What an example this is for us! We can find our joy in the Lord, and in the things that are His. We find it too with those who can share with us the trials, exercises and sorrows that come with the path of reproach and testimony for the Lord.

The very remembrance of Timothy's tears filled Paul with joy. How would he feel about us? Would he turn from us sad and disappointed at our feeble faith and general shallowness of conviction and feeling? Depend on it: sincere faith, a pure conscience kept clean, and the deep spiritual feelings that express themselves in tears are huge assets for facing the difficulties and dangers of "the last days."

Timothy was not less dear to the apostle, but more dear, because he had passed through deep exercise and severe sifting. But he could not leave him under possible discouragement. He would not simply point him to those who had gone before him in faith, nor cheer himself in a general way. He adds, "For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands."

This gift was the special energy of the Holy Spirit imparted to Timothy. There is no reasonable doubt that it is the gift spoken of in 1 Tim. 4:14. There it came through prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the body of elders; here, through the laying on of Paul's hands. The elders joined with Paul, but the power was in the apostle alone. God used him as the one channel of so great a gift. The difference between the prepositions "with" and "by" shows this.

We learn here also that Timothy received his gift in an exceptional way, by the putting on of Paul's hands. This is certainly extraordinary. The Spirit of God normally gives gift by His own independent operation (1 Cor. 12:7-11). But in Timothy's case the Spirit of God used Paul as the instrument.

No one can imitate this case without an apostle and a properly chosen body of elders, not to speak of prophecy. And the claim to do so is a harmful pretence, unless the power is there to give the gift that was given then.

To "stir up" the gift means to stir it into a "flame," to "rekindle" it. God had used Paul as the instrument in giving a gift to Timothy. This gift needed rekindling. The danger of decline, which was already starting to show itself, is clear from 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.

It was a true gift that was in him, and yet he still needed to rekindle it. That is a strong word. It shows the need we have even about what God Himself has given. Contact with the things around us tends to dull our very sense of the gift within. So we need to keep turning to God, so that the gift stays in the divine energy that alone suits it.

Then comes the danger to the servant of the Lord. He sees that people no longer receive his ministry. So he is tempted to retire, to fall silent, or to decide with Jeremiah not to speak in the Lord's name to the people any more (Jer. 20:9). Paul knew Timothy's heart and the way he leaned. So he guards him against this trap. He urges him to rouse himself, and by constant use to stir up the gift he had received to correct and build up the Lord's people.

There are difficulties, dangers and general unfaithfulness, and the ministry seems to show little result. Then comes the danger of thinking it is almost useless to use gift. So we need the warning against letting the gift fall into disuse. We are to stir it up; and, in a day of ruin, to be all the more insistent in its use.

The first clause, which might be rendered the spirit of "cowardice," reveals Timothy's special weakness. He evidently was a man, like Jeremiah, of a timid, shrinking spirit — one who only with difficulty, unless under the sway of the Holy Spirit, could face dangers and opponents. But while the servant of the Lord "must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil" (chap. 2:24), he must also be as bold as a lion in the defence of the truth, and in maintaining the honour of his Lord.

That is not the Holy Spirit exactly, but it could not be apart from His indwelling. The indwelling Spirit imparts to us this three-fold character, apart from which we cannot stand in the evil day... Power without love might be ruthless, and love without the sound mind might be weakness.

The gift may remain even in one who is unfaithful or indifferent; but the power to use it will not be present unless its possessor is walking in dependence upon God, unless he lives in the acknowledgment that power is outside of himself, and in the realization of his own utter weakness.

For whatever we have to do, or whatever we may have to bear in this world, we can always count on abundance of power from on high... The power is His, but this power is exercised on earth by means of His servants.

It is not mere power, which might be used for the destruction of His beloved saints; it is the spirit also of love — love that sacrifices itself for the good of its objects, and counts that sacrifice an unspeakable privilege... It does not hesitate to reprove, rebuke, and exhort; but it prefers to encourage, comfort, console, and intercede on their behalf.

When governed by the Spirit of God, the servant will always show divine wisdom in his work, and be kept in quiet control and subduedness in the presence of God. He will know when to speak and when to be silent, when to be in season and when to be out of season; for he will be maintained in communion with the mind of his Lord.

You could not have a better illustration of a sound mind than that... It is the touch of the great Physician and His word that heals the mind. The sound mind thinks soberly; the man who has it is not puffed up by his knowledge; he puts Christ first, and considers His glory and not his own interest.

From 2 Timothy 1:6-8, we gather that Timothy was timid and held back by nature. That is why Paul urged him to stir up the gift he had received. Paul reminded him of the power and love which were his by the Spirit of God. So Timothy was not to be ashamed of the testimony, nor of Paul in his imprisonment. All these instructions were not put on record for the sake of Timothy alone. They are for the help and instruction of every Christian young man from that day to this.

Not to be "ashamed of the testimony of the Lord" is the testimony itself — not what it was. He was not to be ashamed of bearing witness to Christ the Lord. Paul was in prison for it; Timothy was not to be ashamed because shame was put on the man who had borne the witness... How many stayed with the blessed Lord when He was taken, or with Paul even when he was?... The testimony reduces itself to its simplest elements — not being ashamed of Christ, set before the world in testimony.

Notice too that the man who carries the testimony is identified with the testimony. That is why the apostle adds, "Nor of me his prisoner." Many claim to hold and love the truth, yet they would prefer to stand apart from the people the testimony is entrusted to. As our passage shows, this can never be according to the mind of God. It would have displeased Him just as much if Timothy had been ashamed of Paul as if he had been ashamed of the testimony.

When the tide of blessing is at the full there is little or no room for shame. It is very different when few are gathered in and the love of many grows cold, when the world grows harder and more scornful and the saints cower under its insults... The testimony may look like a failure, but it is still the testimony of our Lord. And the suffering witness, held unjustly by human authority, is His prisoner... Grace joined the witness, who may not be perfect, to His testimony, which is perfect... We are not called to suffer or to bear shame for anything but Christ.

"Suffer evil along with the gospel." The gospel is pictured here almost as a person. Timothy is urged to throw in his lot with it completely, whatever the cost, so that he also carries any reproach that falls on it.

This is only possible "according to the power of God." Here, as in Colossians 1:11, power is connected not with what is active but with what is passive — suffering.

What! Share in afflictions? Yes. Share in being delivered from feeling them? No — share in afflictions that a man really feels, but "according to the power of God!" This does not mean he stops feeling the pressure of sorrow and weakness. Paul had a "thorn in the flesh" (2 Cor. 12). Did he not feel it, do you think? Yes, he felt it daily... The power of God coming in on our side does not lessen the feeling.

The mention of God's power leads the Apostle back and upward to the source of all the blessing that was flowing out through the gospel: to God's purpose and grace. That purpose is the unchanging foundation on which God was working. It is also the assurance that no effort of the enemy could stop God from carrying out His thoughts.

It is plain that the first great object of the gospel is our salvation... Not only has God saved us; we also read that He has "called us to a holy calling." This passage calls it "a holy calling." Scripture also calls it "the heavenly calling" (Hebrews 3:1) and "the upward call" (Philippians 3:14). Salvation sets us free from our sins and from this world under judgment. The calling links us with heaven and with all the spiritual blessings God has purposed for us in the heavenly places in Christ.

But God "saved us and called us to a holy calling." Here "holy" carries the weight. It suits this letter and the conditions it has in view. The calling was always holy, but now it was urgent to press its "holy" character. It is a calling on high, or upward, as we read in Philippians 3:14. It stands in contrast with the earthly things in which men find their glory, to their shame. It is a heavenly calling, as we see in Hebrews 3:1... But now, as those who bore the Lord's name were sliding into decline, the apostle binds God's salvation together with His holy calling. An evil time is not a time for lowering the standard. It is a time for unveiling it and pressing its importance.

These precious words, "His own purpose and grace," stand far above and beyond man's works! No one was there to influence His purpose. No one had ever lived to raise a question about what sort of life would be blessed with His grace. No — it is the grace of God, known and believed, that gives a man's life its right shape.

There are good works in every saint: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10)... Still, God's salvation rests on Christ's work, not ours.

This, too, was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time began. It is a most weighty and blessed truth. It does not mean only that our security is guaranteed without end. It means that grace was given in Christ Jesus before time began. It was not so with Israel: God called them in time. God's purpose about us Christians was in eternity, before any creature existed... Their blessing was a plan bound up with Christ before the world existed, and before any question of creature responsibility came in... so we are all the more bound to walk, here and now, as He walked.

This is not a question of election here, even if election is involved. The point is that God gave us a place in Christ — the sovereign calling — before the world began, and did not reveal it until Christ came.

It is not merely security assured without end, but grace given in Christ Jesus before time began. It was not so with Israel: they were called in time. God's purpose about us, Christians, was in eternity before any creature existed.

This appearance is not only about His birth. It also covers His life, His death at Golgotha, His resurrection, His ascension, and the coming of the Holy Spirit on earth. This is what Paul has in mind in 2 Timothy 1:10.

"He abolished death": no stronger word could be used. It means that death has been brought to nothing — entirely ended — set aside. When what is all-powerful comes in, clearly everything in its way must give place. It pushes out what filled the space before. So Christ has displaced, abolished, death.

This Scripture presents our Saviour as having abolished death. Death is pictured here as a person, as sin is in Romans 7. Of course this does not mean that men no longer die as a fact. It means He has annulled the title of death as regards His own. Hebrews 2 declares the same: He took part in flesh and blood, "that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil." But He has done more: through the Gospel He has brought to light life and incorruption — the body is in question there, and not the soul only.

What then has the gospel brought to light? Two things which had been hidden until now — life and incorruptibility. Note, incorruptibility, not immortality (it is the same word as in 1 Corinthians 15:53). There was no doubt about immortality; that had been known before. But the gospel now brings incorruptibility to light, along with life. If we do not see this, we do not see the depth of what was in God's heart.

Immortality is not the word here. People in Old Testament times already believed that the soul of man survived death and that resurrection lay ahead. Job's words here show it, and the Lord made it plain in His dispute with the Sadducees of His day. One thing was not made known: for the believer, resurrection will mean entry into a new and incorruptible order of things.

It is not said or meant that either was completely hidden. Enough was suggested for the faith of God's elect to show that resurrection and heaven were in His mind, and not earthly blessing only... The Gospel does not speak of life and incorruptibility as entirely unknown before. On the contrary, it assumes they were partly seen, gleaming here and there through the darkness. Now they stand out in bold relief, the grand theme of gospel testimony, as seen in the person of the Lord Jesus.

When he wrote this second letter to Timothy, he was in Nero's hands; but he was not troubled in the least. Why? Because he had such a full sense of what the grace of God was... He did not think about what Nero could do to him. He was occupied with what was in God's mind before the world began.

We may die; we do not have to. We may meet it as the providential dealing of an infinitely wise God — not as wrath, not as penalty... It is "to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better" — to be "away from the body and at home with the Lord."

No wonder the apostle, imprisoned in Rome for the gospel's sake, and expecting his blood to be poured out soon like a drink offering (2 Tim. 4:6), adds with triumphant thankfulness, "for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher [of the Gentiles]." A few important manuscripts leave out "of the Gentiles." Given the character of this letter, I think that is probably right.

Paul was the herald, the apostle, and the teacher of this truth. As the herald he was the one who cried out this message, as an apostle he had authority to bring this message, and as a teacher he explained it in all its details.

God has made this gospel known to us in all its fullness through a specially appointed vessel — one who comes to us as Apostle of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. So it reaches us on sufficient authority, through an Apostle who speaks by revelation and inspiration.

We must take note of Paul's appointment here: the Spirit of God required this to be pressed home. It was no mere appointment by men, and it is not meant as a pattern for others to follow. With Timothy, nothing at all is said about his being appointed to anything. We are not even told what gift Timothy had, though Paul tells him to stir it up and to "do the work of an evangelist" (ch. 4:5). But God gave Paul the special responsibility of "laying the foundation," as "a wise master builder" (1 Cor. 3:10)... As Scripture often notes, so here again, God sent Paul to the nations, not to Israel, though his heart longed after his own people (Rom. 10:1).

Of this good news Paul was a herald, an apostle, and teacher of the nations. In this he was the most honoured man on earth. The grace of the heavenly Christ had subdued his stubborn will. What greater honour could a poor creature receive than to display that grace in the middle of a selfish world, and to light up the dark places of the earth with the knowledge of the salvation and love of a Saviour-God?

The apostle explains that he had been appointed as the herald and apostle of the gospel — not from man, as he tells the Galatians, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead... His present sufferings came from his imprisonment (v. 8), from the opposition the gospel now met everywhere, and from being deserted by so many professed believers, and perhaps teachers (v. 15). He sees these sufferings as flowing out of the place he held in relation to the gospel.

People who reach for some place of official appointment or recognition are not usually the ones most ready to suffer persecution for Christ's sake. Paul had not wanted the place, but he was fully willing to suffer for Christ if it came to that. God put him in a position where he could not escape suffering.

It was his faithful testimony that made Paul suffer. No wrongdoing brought him into suffering and reproach. Imprisonment was only one of "these things" that this faithful servant had to suffer. Other sufferings hurt his sensitive heart even more. "These things" included the desertion of those he loved in Asia, where he had worked so long. Since he was suffering for his faithfulness as a servant of Jesus Christ, he can say, "I am not ashamed."

Was Paul then a man of iron constitution, a heart of oak that threw off every blow and wound as if it were never felt? His circumstances were as trying as his health was frail.

No tremor of fear or discouragement can pierce the armour of his confidence in the living God. It was not a matter of "what" he had believed, but "Whom." True doctrine is good, but only as it springs from Him who is true. He is the person who is the foundation of all truth, the living Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer and Upholder of all things.

"I know whom I have believed," 2 Tim. 1:12 — I have the inward conscious knowledge of who the person is.

Notice the order of the words — believing was the first act, and knowing was the result. The knowledge is inward. It is the fruit of faith and of faithfulness. It grows out of walking in rich fellowship through storm or sunshine, winter or summer. It is an acquaintance like that of one friend with another. Where there is faith there is the knowledge of God. When faithfulness follows, that knowledge grows deeper and more precious.

By "my deposit" we should understand all that I as a believer entrust to the safekeeping of God. It covers not only the security but the blessedness of the soul and the body, of the walk and the work. It takes in every question that could be raised about the past, present, or future.

It is as though he had deposited with God everything concerning himself. So there could be no doubt about its safety. In fact, who can doubt that in such hands the interest itself will multiply beyond measure?

If on the one hand we have a "deposit" (all our hopes of glory) with Christ, He on the other hand entrusts His servants with a deposit. What then is this good deposit? It cannot be eternal life, or salvation, for the keeping of that belongs to Christ Himself. So it is probably the truth. It is the truth handed to His servants as stewards, for them to keep faithfully while they serve in the prospect of that day.

In the light of "that day" Paul can pass triumphantly through "this day" with all its insults, scorn and shame. We may wonder why the devoted Apostle was allowed to be deserted and opposed even by the saints. We shall not wonder in "that day." Then every wrong will be put right. Then all the shame and suffering and reproach will prove to bring praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

Man may kill the body and can do no more. Knowing this, the Apostle was sure the Lord could and would keep what he had committed to Him until that day. Until then he could trust the Lord for his own salvation and eternal happiness, and also for the recompense of his service. The enemy could do nothing with such a man, because his hopes and joys were outside the scene through which he moved.

The deposit here, as in 2 Timothy 1:14, means the truth God entrusted through the people He chose. It is God's revelation, given in words taught by the Holy Spirit. It is the pattern of sound words that Timothy heard from Paul in front of many witnesses. It is not the soul or its salvation. It is not the office of a minister. It is not even the grace of the Spirit. It is the perfect communication of what God is in His nature, His ways, His relationships, and His purposes.

So the question is this: what is the good deposit? It cannot be eternal life or salvation, because keeping that belongs to Christ Himself. So it is probably the truth — the truth put into the care of His servants — to be held by them in full faithfulness as they serve, looking on to that day.

In verse 12 the apostle rested with holy satisfaction in God keeping what he had entrusted to Him. Here is the other side. Timothy is called to keep what was entrusted to him, and God gives him help for it in the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. The Spirit given to us stays with us for ever. Our sins and foolishness may grieve Him, but since redemption He does not abandon the believer. When self-judgment clears the hindrance away, He is there to act in His own gracious power, for the glory of Christ Who sent Him down for this very purpose.

It is good to have the truth set out in an outline of sound words. Yet no such outline can keep the truth alive by itself. For that the Holy Spirit is needed. Without Him the sound words only embalm the truth. You can see this in some of the orthodox confessions, where the creed has been completely cut off from daily practice. But by the Spirit who lives in us the truth can be kept in its living power.

It is worth remembering this. If the Lord sends us on any service, or sets us to defend the truth in a hard day, He has given us power equal to every demand that can be made on us. We are too often taken up with a sense of our own weakness, instead of with the power we have through the Holy Spirit living in us.

Many people naturally enjoy conflict over the truth. They catch the scent of battle from far off with fierce joy. But I do not think the apostle is pointing to that hard spirit here. He is not speaking of quarrelling over the truth, or of the pleasure of winning an argument. He is speaking of guarding the deposit of truth by the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

It is only right that the Master should have interest on so valuable a deposit. Compare Luke 19:23. The one effective way of keeping this trust is to use it for the Master. But it is not ours to hand over to the enemy as we please. We must not let it be stolen away.

Yet every believer is called to keep the good deposit in this way, and all who fail to do so will suffer eternal loss of reward. This cannot be done in natural strength. Only as a person walks in the Spirit will the grace that is needed be given.

Through Paul's preaching, "all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks" (Acts 19:10). So they owed him a great deal. But now the aged and devoted Apostle was in prison, and they had lost their first love. The warmth of their zeal had cooled. They had become ashamed of God's chosen vessel of the truth.

What a change already since the beginning of the gospel! Think of the Thessalonians and the Ephesians. Ephesus was the capital of what is here called Asia. Paul had preached among these same people, so that all Asia had heard the gospel. And see how they had all now abandoned him!

It would be wrong to conclude that they had turned their backs on Christianity completely and stopped professing it. That was not the case. Their faith had grown weak. They had withdrawn from the apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, because he had become a despised prisoner. By that act they showed too that they were leaving the great and blessed teachings the Apostle had preached to them.

They had certainly fallen in with the drift of this age. So they would be tempted to see Paul as an extreme man, as too narrow, as a zealot, as someone whose fanaticism put the progress of Christianity at risk. They turned away from him, looking for smoother paths, where the cross would be lighter.

Why? They were ashamed of him. They had given up the truth that Paul taught in particular. They had also given up Paul himself, and that might be the greater thing. Some were even ashamed of Paul's chain.

From the context I would judge that the apostle's imprisonment brought out this utterly shameful and guilty desertion. The enemy used the human shame heaped on the greatest servant of the church and of the gospel. These people were the rich fruit of his own work in divine power. Yet in spirit they in effect joined the world, cowering under its shame. Faith and love should have made them stand with the apostle in his suffering, as suffering that brought glory to the name of Jesus.

Scripture records their names, which shows they were well known. They were probably leaders among the believers, and so their example would lend approval to this unfaithful course. Perhaps the teaching of these men had adapted itself to the currents of the moment. The trends of any age always find a voice through some who claim the place of teachers.

Their desertion would prepare Timothy, and countless others, for what might be like it in kind and in time. Scripture records nothing in vain. It is true that we gain strength for the conflict by looking at the Captain of salvation, not at deserters. But it is good to be ready for what has already happened, for what might happen, and for what the same causes are sure to bring about again and again.

But the turning away from Paul was not absolutely complete even in Asia. There was at least one bright exception. God in His grace always uses a time of general evil to bring out unusual faithfulness and devotion… The contrast helps much, and clearly, to show us where the general defection lay. And the Lord repaid the house of Onesiphorus, with compound interest, for the grace He had given to its head.

The turning away from Paul was not absolutely complete even in Asia. There was at least a bright exception. God always uses a time of general evil, in His grace, to bring out unusual faithfulness and devotion... The contrast helps a great deal to show us clearly where the general desertion lay. And the Lord repaid "the house of Onesiphorus", with compound interest, for the grace He had given to its head.

But Paul also singles out the crucial fact: "and was not ashamed of my chains." Love shows its truth, character, and power in the hour of need. How was it with "all who are in Asia"? They were clearly ashamed of it. Human prudence blamed the zeal for Christ that had caused it. A worldly spirit refused to be linked in any way with the imprisoned apostle. How did the Lord regard such selfish timidity? The Holy Spirit marks its baseness permanently on the everlasting page of Scripture.

The apostle's heart deeply appreciates the simple faithfulness of this dear man. He clearly had no place of prominence, but he had a heart devoted to the Lord and to His suffering servant. He does no great public work. But he often refreshed the apostle, and he was not ashamed to be seen with a man in prison for Christ's sake... What an indication that things which may look small in our eyes are not really small in God's estimate!

There was one ray of light in the gloom of that moment. One small stream of comfort flowed into the apostle's heart from the heart of God, through His servant Onesiphorus... Precious to the weary soul of Paul were these cups of cold water that Onesiphorus put to his thirsty lips! And the Lord saw this blessed service, and counted it as done to Himself. "I was in prison and you came to me" (Matt. 25:36).

The whole household is linked with the loyalty of its head. The apostle commends the whole household to the mercy of the Lord for Onesiphorus's loyal and loving heart... the whole household shared the rejection with its head. This is as it should be. May it be so indeed in our households!

The apostle's prayer covers a present and a future blessing. He wants present mercy for the house of Onesiphorus. That is, he prays that the members of Onesiphorus's family and household might come into the enjoyment of present mercy in salvation. The apostle's heart was in communion with the heart of God, who told Noah to come into the ark with all his house, because He had seen that Noah was righteous in that generation (compare Acts 16:31)... "That day" refers to the Lord's appearing (see v. 12). Then He will display His own in glory, and He will also display the reward, in grace, of each of His servants.

It is strange that the apostle's prayer for the house of Onesiphorus is used as an authority for praying for the dead. The assumption that Onesiphorus had died is incorrect.

The desertion of the mass made the affection of the few all the more precious. When the great mass grieved the heart of Paul, there was at least one of whom he can say, "He often refreshed me." When others deserted him, there was still one of whom he can write, "he searched for me earnestly and found me."

Onesiphorus had also come to Rome, and he searched hard for Paul until he finally found him. There were many thousands of prisoners in Roman dungeons. We can well imagine how, day after day, Onesiphorus searched for his beloved brother, going from dungeon to dungeon until he found Paul. What a meeting that must have been!

How grateful Paul was to Onesiphorus, who often refreshed him, was not ashamed of his chain, and searched for him earnestly in Rome until he found him! Imagine that — attaching yourself to a man in a position of obscurity as well as dishonour… There may be a greater trial than standing alone for the truth. In some cases, joining yourself to others calls for a higher quality. The quality needed for the first position is courage; for the second, grace. You may not fear blows: do you fear derision?

What a precious contrast we see in this devoted brother Onesiphorus, his name written forever in the Word of God! The apostle deeply appreciates the simple faithfulness of this dear man. He clearly had no place of prominence, but he had a heart devoted to the Lord and to His afflicted servant. It is no great public work he does… In Rome he sought Paul out. That was surely hard in so large a city, where prisons were many. Anyone could excuse himself from such a task as unnecessary. But the apostle — and certainly God too — valued the faith that kept looking until it found Paul. What an indication that things which may appear small in our eyes are not really so in the estimate of God!

There was one ray of light in the gloom of that moment. One stream of comfort flowed into the heart of the Apostle from the heart of God, through His servant Onesiphorus… The Lord used him to bring refreshment to the captive Apostle… And the Lord saw this blessed service, and valued it as done to Himself. "I was in prison and you came to me" (Matt. 25:36).

When he was in Rome, he eagerly sought out the apostle and found him. God prospers earnest love for Christ's sake.

And has this not a word for us today? We stand and survey the ruin we ourselves have brought in. Is it not an essential part of faithfulness to seek Paul out very diligently and find him, speaking figuratively? And has the real Paul changed, either in doctrine or manner of life, or suffering? … The true "Paul" is as rejected today as then; and this is a solemn consideration for each of us.

The reference to Onesiphorus and his household is very touching. It proves that the indifference and desertion of the crowd did not make the Apostle overlook the love and kindness of one man and his family. In fact, the desertion of the crowd made the affection of the few all the more precious. When the great crowd grieved the heart of Paul, there was still one of whom he can say, "He often refreshed me." Others may be ashamed of him, but of this man he can say that he "was not ashamed of my chain." When others deserted him, there was still one of whom he can write, "He sought me out very diligently, and found me."

He asks for present mercy for the house of Onesiphorus. That is, he prays for the members of Onesiphorus' family, his household. He also prays that the Lord would grant Onesiphorus himself to find mercy from "the Lord on that day." "That day" refers to the Lord's appearing (see v. 12). Then He will display His own in glory, and then He will also show the reward, given in grace, of each of His servants. Onesiphorus had already received mercy in his salvation. But as he passed through the wilderness, he was "looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life" (Jude 21). And it is this, mercy in its full fruit and consummation, that Paul prays he may find in that day.

As to his finding "mercy from the Lord on that day," it is no doubt the day of rewards. And rewards are not strictly what is deserved: that would be wages. It is because God's very character is merciful that He gives rewards. Notice in Matthew 25:28 that the servant had gained ten talents for his master by using his master's goods. Yet after he brought them to the master, he still had them in his own possession. The master let him keep them, and in fact gave him more. This is certainly mercy, a reward not really deserved at all.

All the reward there is mercy, and it is well and needful to be reminded of it. So the apostle, after speaking of the self-forgetting love of Onesiphorus, who had refreshed and ministered to him in his chains at Rome, prays, "May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day" (2 Tim. 1:18). At our best, as at our worst, we are debtors to grace. Grace crowns, just as grace saves.

The closing statement shows that it was not the first time Onesiphorus had been of service to Paul. In Ephesus too he had ministered in many things to the Apostle, and the Spirit of God has caused it to be recorded here, as it is also recorded in heaven, to teach us that He marks and appreciates the slightest kindness shown to His servants in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He found the deserted apostle: "may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day"! We are all waiting for this in faith (Jude 21). Still, the apostle's prayer is just as sweet and comforting. And that is not all. He appeals to Timothy, who knows very well how much service Onesiphorus rendered in Ephesus. The apostle does not limit that service to what was done for himself, as the Authorised Version and others do. The general phrase leaves room for what was personal, of course, but it means much more.

It is strange that the Apostle's prayer for the house of Onesiphorus is used as authority to pray for the dead. The assumption that Onesiphorus had died is incorrect.

He himself was a prisoner, and "all who are in Asia" had turned away from him. At a time when so many were turning their backs on the man God had chosen to carry His truth, surely some severity, a little sharpness, would be the wise way to bring believers back to a sense of their responsibility before God to acknowledge the authority of His servant. That is how man might think. God's thoughts were of another kind.

How was Timothy to be strong in grace? The word is the same one found in Philippians 4:13, and that gives us the key to its meaning. This grace was to strengthen him inwardly, so that he would be ready to stand in an evil day and to handle the evils around him. There is no weapon we are so often tempted to lay aside as grace. Yet we learn here that the greater the outward decay, unfaithfulness and corruption, the more we need grace to build us up and make us strong.

We may be timid by nature, as Timothy was. Even so, there is grace in Christ to make us able to stand against the rising tide of evil… However weak we are in ourselves, we can draw on that grace. The Lord said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." … So the grace of Christ is all the power of Christ, made available to a weak and needy believer.

Christ had not changed, whatever men had become. So the man who suffered from their desertion was not discouraged. He could urge his beloved Timothy to keep steadily on in the word. This letter records the failure and ruin of the church, and no other letter calls the man of God to fuller or firmer courage.

This is not God's grace shown in blessing man. It is the precious quality that shone out so brightly in Christ's dealings with men, and is now given to His people so that it may shine out in them.

Some people think grace means being soft. But here we are urged not to be soft. We are told to be "strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." … A hard, legal spirit that demands the last ounce is certainly not the spirit that is "fit for the Master's use." It is much easier to push yourself forward, to take the front place, to resent injuries — all of that comes naturally to the flesh. Being gracious takes moral and spiritual strength, and a mind occupied with Christ.

Timothy was timid and sensitive, so he needed this personal appeal to throw him on the grace in Christ Jesus for inward strength. He needed it above all when he passed the truth on to faithful men who would be able to teach others. That is always a delicate task. It calls for much moral courage and tact, and His grace alone can supply them.

The apostle held back nothing useful from so close a companion... What he testified was not done in a corner, so he brought the precious truth out openly, in front of many witnesses... Those "many witnesses" who heard Paul teach these things to Timothy would encourage a wider spread of the truth, and they would also confirm what was said. Inspiration is not claimed for the many witnesses here, but accurate information, so that the truth could be confirmed and spread... Nor is it simply assumed that faithful men are always able to teach. They are to be men competent to teach others as well.

There would be little value in handing these things to people who only have "itching ears." And it is not "educated" or "ordained" men who are mentioned here, but "faithful men." This is the true way God keeps His truth alive in the world. Human wisdom or high position cannot hold up a true witness for God. There must be faithfulness in obeying the truth, if a man is to "teach others also."

Here the apostle is directing how truth is passed on to others — as surely as he can, of course. He is not setting up authority or a rule of faith... It was not authority, but a way of passing truth on... A mother does this for her baby, but she is not a rule of faith. She may do it perfectly well, but that changes nothing.

In this second letter to Timothy there is no longer any talk of elders or of ordained men, as there was in the first. "Faithful men" are wanted — not for ordination, but to hold the truth entrusted to Timothy.

There is not a hint here of any successors to the apostles, or of any authority at all in the Church that people could appeal to for defining the truth and exposing false teaching... The waves of error were already rolling in from every side, and the Apostle urges his beloved Timothy to raise up sea walls in this way to break their force... So our safety today lies first in building ourselves up on our most holy faith, and then in carefully teaching believers, so that they know how to tell truth from error.

It is God's way that the truth held in the apostles' writings should be entrusted to those able to teach others. Self-sufficiency and self-importance may flatter us that we can do without the help of others. But while God is sovereign and can teach us straight from His word, His usual way is to keep us dependent on one another — to receive as learners, and to pass on to others the truth and light we have received.

Suppose you are searching into the true things of the gospel and the deeper truths of the church of God. Wherever you find an open ear and a heart that values these things with you, share together what you are learning about the Lord... Share with your brother what you are learning of Christ. In that way you are preparing some who in their turn will be able to teach others also.

The New Testament says two things about the Christian soldier. He must "endure hardness," that is, share in the suffering that comes with warfare. And he must not entangle himself with the affairs of this life, "that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier." That is, he must be quite free to obey his Captain in all things… The Christian servant is under authority. Unquestioning obedience should mark the soldier of Jesus Christ: he must be ready to endure hardships, and to suffer with his Captain.

In an enemy's land who could wonder that Timothy was called to take his share in suffering?

We shrink from suffering by nature. So the call goes out to Timothy — and to everyone who wants to be true to Christ — "Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus." Compared with Paul, the "share" of suffering we may be called to take will be small. But wherever a believer today refuses error and stands for the truth, he must be ready in some measure to face opposition, persecution, desertion, and malice. As with the Apostle, these things may come even from his fellow believers.

We therefore need, not power to crush our enemies, but grace to take our share in suffering… Though Jesus is Lord in the place of supreme power, He does not usually act in power to crush the enemies of His servants. He did not give Stephen power to crush his enemies… He gave grace. Stephen was so strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus that he could take his share in suffering. As a good soldier of Jesus Christ, he did not threaten or insult his persecutors. Instead, he prayed for them and committed his spirit to the Lord.

So when he urged Timothy to take his share in suffering, he had already walked that path himself. He only encourages him to follow in the same steps. And where is the servant, we may ask, who does not need this reminder? Avoiding the cross is a common temptation. Only when the love of Christ constrains us, and our eye is fixed on His glory alone, are we moved to take a glad share in the sorrows and sufferings of His interests here on earth.

In lands where religious freedom is granted, the conflict side of Christian life is easy to overlook. People think that our journey to a joyous heaven will be happy and calm. But that is not the prospect Scripture holds out. We are not only pilgrims but also disciples. We are called to take up our cross and follow our rejected Lord. And because we are identified with Him, conflict is certain.

A good soldier will obey his Captain and act as he does. Christ is the great Captain of our salvation. He has reached His place of glory through sufferings, and He has left us the perfect example of suffering in patience… To act in a way so contrary to nature will indeed demand that we should be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Here the apostle calls him to take his share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. What else, inside or outside, demands more self-denial or brings greater trials? ... The servant must make up his mind to refuse all distraction.

Bios is the way a person lives, or what he lives on in this world. The poor widow put in all her living. Mark 12:44. We pray for those in authority "that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life." 1 Tim. 2:2. "No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits." 2 Tim. 2:4. "The pride of life is not from the Father." 1 John 2:16.

The Apostle is not suggesting that we should neglect the affairs of this life, or that we are necessarily called to give up our everyday business. In other Scriptures he rules that thought out. He tells us to work with our hands to provide what is honest, and he can say of himself, "You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities." But he warns us against letting the affairs of this life fill our time, drain our energy and take over our minds. That way we become entangled as in a net, no longer free to carry out the Lord's will.

The grand point is to keep the heart disentangled. God's warriors must have free hearts, and the only way to be free is to cast all our care on Him who cares for us. I can stand on the battlefield with a free heart when I have placed my house, my vineyard and my wife in the divine keeping.

He demands on the part of God's warriors a disentangled heart. It is not a question of salvation, of being a child of God, of being a true Israelite. It is a question of being able to fight an effective war. A man cannot fight well if his heart is tangled up with "a house," "a vineyard" or "a wife."

Instead, he arranges to lay aside all his business responsibilities. He wants to be free from every other claim and completely at his commander's disposal. Are the soldiers of Christ to be on any lower level? ... It is a most blessed thing when busy men give their spare time to the Lord's work, putting His interests before their own ease and comfort. But the Apostle speaks here of another kind of servant. In the power of the Holy Spirit these servants free themselves from every human claim, because they want to please the Captain of their salvation and to be under His complete control.

The good soldier of Jesus Christ seeks to please, not himself or even others, but first and foremost the One who has chosen him to be a soldier.

Suppose one is called to be the Lord's servant. How then can he hire himself out as the servant of a denomination or a congregation, and do what man tells him to do? When a man is hired, he becomes a servant to those who hire him and must please them. Should he not stay free as the servant of Christ alone, and serve Him wherever and however his Master directs, day by day?

One of the first things we have to watch is the way the affairs of life take up our attention and shut out the Lord's interest. Whatever shape the Lord's interest takes in your life, and whatever service you are to give, be on your guard. Do not let the affairs of life fill your mind and crowd out the claims of Christ. It is very hard. The world is in such a state that we feel these distractions — uncertain work, difficulties in trade and business.

He must endure. He must stay free from the world's entanglements. He must fight by the rules, and work first before he looks for fruit. These are the practical conditions of divine service for whoever takes it up.

There are certain rules of the ring. If you are going to compete, if you are going into special games, you must learn the rules of those games. Break them, and the judges may rule you out and disqualify you. The prize we are looking for makes one thing very important: we must know every desire of the Lord's heart, and all these rules He has given us to walk by. Can I ask you — do you read the Word systematically?

He is not crowned unless he competes lawfully, running by the rules of the contest. He may come in first and still not be crowned. Do we keep this in mind enough when we serve the Lord? Unless we serve by His instructions and obey His word, we cannot expect a full reward.

Christ calls His servant to be as careful as an athlete. If so, he must keep the revealed will of the Lord as strictly as those who took part in the games of Greece kept their rules. General faithfulness ought never to be sought or allowed as a cover for wrongdoing. And the highest excellence in the highest aims cannot excuse a departure from truth or righteousness, even in small things. The man who broke the law of the games in any way was shut out from the victor's wreath for that very reason.

These rules demanded steady discipline and training before a man could enter the contest at all. History gives us the details of the training the competitors in the Greek games went through: the diet, the exercise, the fixed hours, the hard life they endured to win a crown that perishes. So in these days of ease, wealth and self-indulgence, the servant of the Lord is to train himself the opposite way. That way he can carry out his ministry and service according to the will of his Lord.

The crown will not be given for great activity, nor for the amount of service, but for faithfulness in service. The crown goes to the one who strives lawfully. It might be argued that, in a day of great weakness, we must each adopt whatever methods we think best to get our service done. To meet such arguments we are warned that, in a day of ruin, we are still bound to "strive lawfully". So this condemns bringing carnal methods, human devices and worldly shortcuts into the service of the Lord.

The crown the Apostle speaks of is not given for being a Christian, but for a faithful walk… It ought to be a solemn thought to our hearts that the Lord means to notice how people have stood as witnesses for Him, and what their walk was like. All are to be in glory on the ground of free grace. But Christ watches to see if we run well. He will give a reward if there has been faithfulness, and a crown of righteousness if we have loved His appearing.

You will notice the three different ways in which the servant should exercise himself. In the 4th verse you have the warrior; in the 5th verse the wrestler, and in the 6th verse the worker.

As a soldier he was to obey his captain's command at once. He was to endure all the hardships of such a demanding calling. As an athlete he was to pay close attention to the rules of the game. He was not to seek the crown by unlawful means, for that would be to lose it. As a farmer he must be patient. He knows the labour must come before the harvest.

There is a question of translation. Is it "first labouring," or "first partaking"? It is simply a comparison, like the other one… Only he must first labour to be a partaker.

Rather he must "labour before he partakes of the fruits." That is, he must first labour, and then partake of the fruits. God takes care of His people, and secures them a blessed end. At the same time He will have them wholly for Himself. And He is also jealous about the way in which they seek even the ends of God.

Farming is man's earliest occupation, and it involves the maximum amount of real hard physical work. It means downright labour. So it is for the servant of the Lord. He must be prepared for real hard work. Yet when the autumn fruits come in, he has the very first claim upon them, and rightly so. We make a great mistake if we think we are special exceptions to this rule, carried to heaven on soft beds of ease.

It is steady labour, and we cannot, by any human effort, hurry the harvest along. Souls must be exercised, and a real work carried on in them… We are impatient by nature. I remember, as a child, planting some little orange trees. I pulled the leaves to make them grow faster, and spoiled the plants.

The tendency of all, and especially of the Lord's servants, is to forget this healthy truth in the intense desire to gather in and feast upon the fruit. So we should remember this, and it will save us from many disappointments: now is the time of labour, and it will be the time of labour until the Lord's return… The time of partaking of the fruit is future. Knowing this will encourage our hearts to persevere in service.

He tells Timothy he must work, or else he will not get his pay. I do not mean pay in a bad sense.

Above all others He was faithful as soldier, athlete, or farmer… He avoided or resisted every entangling alliance "with the affairs of this life." He refused every unlawful help in His strife against sin, and He was always about His Father's business… He Himself, the Firstfruits to God of His own labour, now, after first labouring, "is a partaker of the fruits."

Timothy was to take a lesson from the soldier, the athlete, and the farmer. As a soldier he was to be at the instant command of his captain. He was to endure all the hardships that belong to such a demanding calling. As an athlete he was to give close attention to the rules of the game. He was not to seek the crown by unlawful means, for that would be to lose it. As a farmer he must be patient, knowing that the work must come before the gathering in of the fruit.

This exhortation seems to be a connecting link between verses 6 and 8, and so applies to what comes before as well as to what comes after.

Mere outward contact with the workings of divine power and mercy brings no spiritual progress. We must weigh what the Lord does and consider it seriously. "Consider (noeo) what I say," Paul said to Timothy, "and the Lord give you understanding (sunesin) in all things."

If we take these words as they stand, they hold an exhortation and a prayer — or at least a strong desire. They point Timothy to the Lord as the source of the power to understand divine things. The better reading, however, seems to be, "The Lord shall give you understanding in all things." That meaning is a little different, and very important. It still reminds Timothy that he depends on the Lord. It also ties his thinking over the apostle's words to the Lord's own work of opening his mind to understand them. The more we consider, weigh and meditate on the Scriptures, the more the Holy Spirit works to unfold their teaching to our souls.

So the words that follow fit all the more. They are an assurance, not merely a prayer: "And the Lord shall give you understanding in all things." The promise is as wide in its range as it is detailed in its branches. Anyone who has an anointing from the Holy One can count on it, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

Whatever love Paul had for his child in the faith, and however much he wanted him to grow in the mind of God, he could not give him understanding. No one could do this but the Lord. People sometimes think that understanding the mind of God needs a good deal of natural intellect. This is a very great mistake. Mere natural ability counts for nothing in the things of God. You may be very clever in the things of men — politics, business and the like — and know alarmingly little of the things of God. You may be very slow in the things of the world. That is no reason to be slow in the things of God. The Lord can give you understanding in all things, and He will do so if He is sought.

It was not enough for Daniel to receive revelations; he needed to have his understanding opened so he could profit by them. Later the Lord opened the Scriptures to the disciples. He also opened their understanding, so that they could grasp the Scriptures. We too need the opened understanding as well as the opened Scriptures. So the apostle, as he opens up the truth to Timothy, can say, "Consider what I say; and the Lord give you understanding."

Let us not be content with reading the passage, or being able to explain it… How good it is to turn from the written word to the living Word! Like Mary long ago, we can sit at His feet and read these words in His presence, as a message from the Lord to each one of us.

Verse 8 should read, "Remember Jesus Christ of the seed of David raised from the dead." We are to remember Him as the risen One. It is not enough to remember only that He is risen, important as that is. Because He is of the seed of David, He holds the legal title to God's throne on the earth, and in due time He will bring in all the blessing promised with that throne. But as the One raised from the dead, He opens far wider fields of blessing to us. If we keep Him in view as the risen One, that will guard us against countless twistings of the truth of the gospel.

He does not speak of Jesus Christ only in His link with the church. He says "of the seed of David" — the One who fulfils the promises, the One the prophecies point to. Even when we view Him like that, He was raised from the dead. Resurrection is the shape and character of the lowest blessings Jesus gives. Much more is He risen to exalt God in the highest.

The truth of the gospel falls into two parts... the fulfilment of the promises, and the power of God in resurrection. These are the two pivots of the truth. First, God is faithful to His promises, shown above all in His dealings with the Jews. Second, God is mighty to bring in something entirely new by His creative, life-giving power, shown in the resurrection. That resurrection also set God's seal on the Person and work of Christ.

"Jesus Christ raised from the dead" is the leading thought, and it is tied most closely to the words "according to my gospel." God entrusted Paul with the gospel of the glory of Christ, "who is the image of God." That gospel announced that Jesus Christ, the Christ who had been here and was crucified, had been raised from the dead. It announced that He is glorified as man at the right hand of God, with the glory of God shining in His face. The words "of the seed of David" tell us that Christ was true man, and show what He was on earth when He was presented to the Jews.

If anyone had a right to honour and glory on earth, it was the Son of David. Yet in Paul's gospel He passes through death into resurrection. That is the only shape blessing can take, since the world and man are what they are. Nothing could be said more strongly... Paul's gospel insists on the great fact of resurrection from among the dead — even for the Messiah. And this alone is true of Him as Messiah now: He is risen, but not reigning. Still less is the Christian reigning yet.

In 2 Timothy, by solemn contrast, all is in ruins. "The pillar and ground of the truth" seems to have fallen, so far as it was placed in the hands of man. Yet one thing rises out of the ruin, like a great headland standing in an angry sea that beats its waves at the foot of it in vain. It is "Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, raised from the dead." This is the unwavering testimony of everyone who bears His name and turns away from the wrong of pushing Him out of the centre where God has put Him.

He carried the precious message of the gospel, the ministry of reconciliation. As an ambassador for Christ, he urged everyone to be reconciled to God, as though God were pleading through him. Yet people not only refused his message. They looked on him as someone disturbing the world's peace. In the end he was shut up in prison as a criminal!

A servant of the Lord may seek to serve Him alone and hold to His Word despite all opposition. Wherever that happens, the enemy lines up all his forces against that man.

He suffered as though he were an evildoer — the same word used for the criminals crucified with Jesus — and he suffered even to the point of chains. Still, he was not ashamed. His opponents were never more hostile. He knew them, and he named them. Was he discouraged? Not at all. He was never more confident. The word of God is not bound.

The one who is most right before God must be content to suffer most before men. We saw the apostle doing this, even to the point of chains.

The apostle lost sight of himself so completely, in his concern for the interests of God in the gospel, that he found his comfort in this: if he was in captivity, the word of God could not be confined. Acts shows the same contrast again and again. In chapter 12 Herod puts James, the brother of John, to death, and "he proceeded to arrest Peter also." But this very activity of the enemy brought God in. Peter is set free, Herod is struck down, and then comes the telling statement: "But the word of God increased and multiplied." When the enemy acts proudly, God steps in and shows that He is above him.

The adversaries might bind him, the messenger of the word of God. But the word of God itself they could not bind. It was in the hand of the Holy Spirit, and He could raise up messengers to carry it wherever and however He chose.

But the truth is worth suffering for, and the Word of God is not bound, however hard people work to hold it back or destroy it. In Rome people counted Paul the chief spokesman of the Word of God. So they no doubt supposed that by confining him they would also confine the truth he proclaimed. But it went out even from his prison. It converted prisoners, and even soldiers. It spread in every direction, and worked as well as if people had welcomed it. So it proves to be enough by itself, without the servant's support. In fact it is itself the support of the servant.

Suffering wrongfully, even to the point of chains as a criminal, did not stop blessing. "The word of God is not bound." On the contrary, such circumstances draw fresh attention. A whole new class of people have their attention drawn to God's revelation. The name of the Lord comes before magistrates, court officials, soldiers, sailors, governors, and perhaps even kings. It may be the world's shame that it happens this way, but rejection is the path of the Christian, and the true glory of the church, until Jesus reigns.

Our opponents thought they had succeeded brilliantly when the preachers were silenced by imperial ban, but they do not see that more is done by our public confession than perhaps ten preachers could have accomplished. Truly Christ is not silent at the Diet. The word of God is not bound. No — if it is forbidden in the pulpits, it will be heard in the palaces of kings.

Translations have multiplied quickly. Missionaries all over the world gain a foothold and learn the language. Then they build a grammar and translate portions of Scripture for those whose salvation they seek. "The word of God is not bound."

No persecution on the part of the world can stop the blessing reaching God's elect. The world may bind the preacher: it cannot bind the word of God. In fact, the hostility of the world that bound Paul only became an opportunity. It brought the gospel before the great ones of the earth. It also let him write the prison letters that unfold our calling so wonderfully.

In this suffering and blessed apostle's mind, the troubles of gospel service take on a high and unusual character. It is sharing in the sufferings of Christ, and in Paul's case to a very remarkable degree. He uses the kind of words we would use of Christ Himself as regards His love. No one else could take part in the propitiation. But in devotedness, and in suffering for love and for righteousness, we have the privilege of suffering with Him.

Daniel was no fatalist. He knew from the books that the years God had fixed for the ruin of Jerusalem were nearly over. Even so, he did not rule out the use of means or human effort... The same is always true of those who hold the truth of God's election and predestination in a sober, thankful way. Instead of paralysing the nerve of earnest effort, those blessed truths are meant to stir up spiritual energy. In meekness and faith they enable believers to pray and work, sure that their efforts will not be wasted. For God, who appointed the blessing, just as certainly appointed the means for reaching it.

It is not that the salvation of the elect is uncertain: the Lord Jesus will surely guard that according to all His gracious power and the unfailing purposes of God. But as another apostle says, "If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" It is indeed with difficulty that the elect are saved, though saved they certainly will be; but as it needs all the resources of divine grace, so it calls for all the love of Christ in hard-working service.

No material order, no visible organization, no outward system, however correct and scriptural, can bring this about for us. Of course it is very important that the order of our gatherings follows Scripture. But when we put that in the place of faith, very serious loss follows. Hardly anything could be worse than to say that salvation is in the church.

Paul endured all his hardships and troubles not only for Christ, but for those who belonged to Christ, God's elect. He did it so that his testimony would carry them the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. They will receive it in its fullest sense when they enter the eternal glory with Christ. The salvation is not exactly the eternal glory, but it leads us into it. Christ will change our lowly bodies and make them like His own body. Then we will have been saved from everything we have faced in this world, where all is against God and against all who are His.

The grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit enabled him to suffer everything that came on him through his testimony, for the sake of the elect... Never forget that the same path is open to every servant of the Lord. Smaller vessels than the apostle may still have the same desires, aims and goals, in the exact measure that the affections of Christ fill their hearts.

How few would dare to say these words as their own experience, from that day to this! Still, we may earnestly desire it in our measure. But it supposes a believer who has not only a good conscience and a heart burning in love, but who is thoroughly self-judged, with Christ dwelling in his heart by faith.

The exact meaning of "It is a faithful saying," or, literally, "faithful is the word," is not seen at once. It may be a solemn declaration that the sentences which follow are true. Or it might mean that these truths were already current among the saints. The Apostle then takes them up and applies them to the matter in hand. To Timothy, at such a moment, they would carry great force. He was at least tempted to shrink from the cross that came with his service. Nothing could meet that moment better than this truth: if we have died with Christ, we shall also live with Him.

He does not add about this word "worthy of all acceptation"; for it is a saying for saints rather than for sinners as such. But the saying is faithful beyond doubt: "if we died together with Him, we shall also live together." Every Christian has died with Christ. It is the very truth which every baptized soul confesses in his baptism, even if he were unable to speak. And it is lack of faith, not lack of speech, which makes it untrue of anyone. The "if" clause is the decisive one. Yet no Christian should shrink from it, and no true Christian can. For it was Christ who, having suffered everything, gave everything freely.

Christ has been through death for us, and that death was our death. It carried the weight of our sins — a death of wrath and curse, to deliver the children of wrath. Dying in our place like this, we who believe in Him have died — are dead — with Him. It is not an individual experience; it is not experience at all. It is a fact, true even apart from our faith in it. Yet our faith in it counts for much in the character of our Christianity.

This is true of all believers by their position: all have died in Christ and live in Him. But the meaning here is the practical showing of it in self-denial and suffering with Him.

Being joined with Christ in His death meant that they accepted the place of death in this world. So with Timothy, and with us all. If we take the place of being dead, no persecutions, no dangers could turn us aside from the path of service. It will also encourage us always to count ourselves dead. And it reminds us that our living together with Him is the divine consequence of being joined with Him in death.

And "if we died with Him," which no believer can dispute now, "we shall also live with Him." Paul here assures us of the bright and blessed future. It is just as true that we live now because He lives, or, as Scripture puts it elsewhere, Christ lives in us. But here the living with Him remains before us as a hope. Here and now we are to carry about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus (2 Cor. 4:10); by and by it will be nothing but living with Him.

The faithful saying encourages us to remember Jesus Christ and to follow the Apostle's example in accepting the path of suffering and toil: "If we have died together with Him, we shall also live together." We may be called to "endure all things", even death. Let us not forget that we can afford to let go of the present life, because of the great truth that, having died with Christ, we shall indeed live with Him.

This is hardly a question of suffering with Christ, or for Christ. In fact, it is not the usual word for suffering, as it is in Romans 8:17. It means to endure, or, as someone has put it well, "to go through suffering patiently." So it must include suffering with Christ, since every Christian does this. The measure of it will depend on his faithfulness to Christ and on his walking in the Spirit. It may also include suffering for Christ.

Our reigning with Christ does not depend in any way on our present suffering. Rather, suffering here is the appointed path for those who will share Christ's kingdom with Him.

There need be no question here: it is suffering now, not reigning with Him yet. Some ancient copies read Revelation 5 or Revelation 20 as if the saints reign now. That is plainly wrong — wrong morally as well as in doctrine. We shall reign with Christ, but even He still sits on the Father's throne. He is waiting to receive His own throne, and we must wait much more... Until then we are to endure, not to reign. When He appears, we shall appear with Him. When He reigns, we shall reign with Him.

We must not forget that He is the rejected Christ, still rejected by the world, and we are called to share in His rejection. The reigning day has not come, but it is coming... Those 400 followers of David shared his fortunes while he was rejected, and then shared his glory when he was raised up. In the same way we are called to share our Lord's rejection now, and His glory later.

Denying the Lord is far from impossible for a servant of His. Scripture shows it happening in one of the most honoured of them, who had thought that for him, of all men, it was impossible; yet Peter was about to do it... Still, the all-overcoming, all-forgiving grace of Christ rose above it and wiped it out... But where denial is a course of life, as here ("if we shall deny", not merely if we should deny in a single act), the result is what it ought to be: God must defend His injured majesty. "He also will deny us." God would stop being God if He put up with the dishonour of His Son.

To deny Christ means, not a sudden fall into temptation, like Peter's, but a total and absolute denial. Whatever profession was made before, it shows there had never been any reality in the soul. We can understand the word "we" when we remember that the Spirit of God always takes us up on the ground of our profession. So the question is not whether a believer can finally deny Christ. The teaching is that an absolute denial of Him is the unmistakable evidence that the soul had never been converted... Those who deny Christ will also be denied; that is, they will be finally and entirely rejected.

There is a closing sentence of great weight: "if we are unfaithful, He abides faithful." And this is for the most convincing and glorious of reasons: "for He cannot deny Himself." At first hearing, reading "for" may seem to spoil the ease and flow of the sentence. But good and ancient manuscripts require it. On reflection it adds a great deal to its force. It is not a separate remark added to confirm what goes before. The ground or proof of His abiding faithfulness lies in the blessed fact of His unchanging truth.

There is a solemn warning here. The denial in this verse is no isolated fall, however shameful, as in the case of the Apostle Peter. It is the continued course of those who deny the glory and work of the Son, whatever profession they make. He will deny such people. As it has been truly said, "God would cease to be God, if He accepted the dishonour of His Son." Amid all the unfaithfulness of the professing Christian world to Christ, "He abides faithful: He cannot deny Himself."

No doubt this was only a passing act, however shameful and terrible, and however often he repeated it, each time making it worse. Yet the all-overcoming, all-forgiving grace of Christ rose above it and wiped it out. It even turned it into profit never forgotten and fruitful blessing.

The question is not whether a believer can finally deny Christ. The teaching is rather that an absolute denial of Him is the unmistakable evidence that the soul had never been converted. … Then comes the solemn addition, "If we believe not." Some have argued that this means being unfaithful as Christians. It does not. It means being positively without faith, and we see no reason for departing from the usual meaning of the word. "He abides faithful" — not to us, but to Himself and to His word — "He cannot deny Himself." Whatever our wavering and changeableness, He must always act in line with His own nature, His holiness, and His truth. In this — in His unchangeableness — lies the eternal security of all who, through grace, have been led to put their trust in Him.

Still we must never forget this. His trustworthiness does not depend in the least on the worth, or otherwise, of our trust. "If we believe not — are unfaithful — yet He abides faithful: He cannot deny Himself" (2 Tim. 2:13). So it is a happy truth that those who are weak in faith, and so do not trust Him fully, still find Him wholly true. Nothing does more to strengthen and increase our trust in the Lord.

If we do not believe, the Lord will still carry out all the purposes of His heart, all the thoughts of His love; for He cannot deny Himself. He does not depend in any way on our faithfulness or service. Yet He may be pleased to give us the privilege of being His servants, of working in His vineyard.

But, in the face of all this, God abides faithful. He cannot deny Himself. Here is the resource and the resting-place of faith. Faith is not blind to human failure; but it fixes its gaze on divine faithfulness. It confesses the ruin of man; but it counts on the resources of God.

For Him to deny Himself would be impossible. But if He abides faithful, He is also "faithful and just to forgive" when His failing people confess their sins to Him, whether on their own behalf or on behalf of others.

"These things" refers to verses 11-13. Those divine truths stand through every change and every phase of the Church's condition. They are bound up with the Lord's own moral nature, and so with the very essence of Christianity. They can never be forgotten without damage. That is why Paul urges Timothy to keep them always before the minds of the saints. At the same time, Timothy was to charge them before the Lord to avoid all contentions about words, which, instead of building up, tended to overturn the hearers.

Much of Timothy's work was to remind souls of what they had already learned. He was not told to bring out new or original things. That point carries special weight in the last days, when the danger of striving about words grows, along with its emptiness in terms of spiritual profit. Timothy must charge the saints not to stoop to this. Its effect is to turn souls aside from the truth.

There are real differences even among Christians, more or less serious in disguising or perverting the truth. But those who value the truth often fall into distinctions without a difference, above all where there is no aggressive zeal. Zeal of this sort makes them determined word-warriors. How true it is that this is useful for nothing, while it is readily available for overturning those who hear! For the word-warrior knows when to stop; the simple who hear go on and are punished.

One long-standing evil is the habit of using divine truth to satisfy spiritual curiosity — a mere mental exercise. It has produced countless clever theories built on certain passages of holy Scripture. Men carried away by imagined discoveries, puffed up with self-importance and governed by an unsubmissive spirit, have drawn away unstable souls. They strive about words to no profit, and, as the apostle says, they tend to the overturning of the hearers. They play straight into the enemy's hands. They waste priceless time and starve souls, because speculation, not Christ, has become the object of the heart.

Whenever spiritual life and energy decline, Christian teachers also fall into the trap of entertaining their hearers. They offer clever and fanciful interpretations, drawn from historical details or from types and figures, instead of ministering Christ. So note that such discussions do no good — and they also turn aside those who listen. Sadly, believers can grow tired of the heaven-sent manna, as the Israelites did. Then there are always people at hand who will feed the appetite of nature.

It is through disputes about words, and speculations, that Satan brings in his most subtle deceptions. The true way is to work hard to show yourself approved by God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, "rightly dividing the Word of truth."

In verse 14 Paul urges Timothy to remind believers of these solemn matters. Remembering them frees believers from wasting their time on unprofitable things that only breed quarrels.

Babblings that are profane treat divine things as if they were common, because they make light of what is sacred. They are "vain" because the arguments used have no substance.

"Profane" here means purely secular, with no real reference to God. It drags everything down to a level where only reason and matter count. This is empty vanity, and it drags souls into deeper ungodliness.

Scripture warns us that as profane and vain babblings increase, ungodly conduct will increase with them. Profane talk leads to an ungodly walk. Holding or spreading error will, as always, lower outward conduct. Laxity of doctrine leads to laxity of morals.

This proves how useless it is to meddle with talk that is not only empty but profane. There was no fear of God in those who indulged in it, and the fear of God is the beginning of everything good for fallen man. Until the truth reaches the conscience, we cannot expect such people to stop misusing the precious revelations of God. They are guilty of profanity. They do not need arguments; they need repentance. Discussion would only flatter their self-importance. It could never stop such a destructive evil.

Some know their own ability to take evil apart and answer it, and so they are prone to meddle with these empty profanities. This does them no good. It may also harm believers, who value such workers and may soak their minds in these dreary efforts. As a rule these efforts puff up the guilty parties instead of convincing them. Time is too precious for anything but what builds up. The man who sets out to argue with every empty dreamer may win, but he is in real danger of serious harm to himself.

Satan has no more successful trap than luring the Lord's servants into foolish controversies. When people are turning away from the truth, contending for it is one of the servant's first responsibilities. But that is very different from turning aside to arguments about words — or, as the Apostle puts it here, "empty voices": words or sounds that carry no meaning for the believer. We cannot say too often that the best way to refute error is to state the truth. Controversy carried on this way builds up both speaker and hearers. Profane and empty babblings only produce more impiety, because they harden the heart and the conscience.

Separation from evil is the first step in God's path. If I cannot reform the evils of Christendom, I am responsible to be right myself... Notice how many times, in different terms and different ways, this letter urges separation from evil. The Apostle says:

- "Shun profane and vain babblings" — 2 Timothy 2:16 - "Depart from iniquity" — 2 Timothy 2:19 - "Purge himself from these" — 2 Timothy 2:21 - "Flee also youthful lusts" — 2 Timothy 2:22 - "Foolish and senseless questionings avoid" — 2 Timothy 2:23 - "From such turn away" — 2 Timothy 3:5

The apostle points out that this dreadful evil among the saints — once, if not any longer — was no imaginary danger to haunt souls, but a fact calling for healthy fear and horror: "Of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who as to the truth went astray," or literally, missed the mark, saying that "the resurrection had taken place already, and overthrow the faith of some."

These men, it seems, held the place of teachers. They fell into a serious error: they did not deny the resurrection, but said it was already past. This subtle form of false teaching is worth special attention. Many believers today could be caught by a seeming super-spirituality that sounds plausible. The teaching of Hymenaeus and Philetus had exactly that pretentious character, for they made the resurrection a spiritual thing. It is quite possible they based their argument on Ephesians 2, where we read that God has made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up together. But "concerning the truth" they erred — literally, they missed the mark. The effect was to overthrow the faith of some.

It is deeply interesting to weigh the character of this error. It was not ignorance of the truth so much as exaggeration. It was the exalting of present privilege to the denial of our hope at Christ's coming. No doubt they prided themselves on higher truth than others taught, and on superior intelligence. This is an extreme danger for people who truly thirst for the truth of God and value it. If they are not watchful, they fall into the trap most easily.

But the error that the resurrection is already past is fatal to this endurance in the meantime. If it were true, it would entitle us to reign as kings now, to take our ease, to enjoy present honour and glory. The enemy framed and calculated it for one purpose: to thwart the will of our Lord, who calls us to share His sufferings until we are glorified together. So it is false as a doctrine and ruinous in practice. It also destroys all communion with Christ, which means sharing His affections in separation from the world.

I think I see the form of the church settling down into the world in the doctrine of Hymenaeus and Philetus: if the resurrection is already past, then here we are, settled in our final state. No one had yet formed it into a system. It simply took away the expectation of the Lord and heavenly hopes. For if the resurrection was past, then Christ had freed His people spiritually and left them here, content in their worldly home. The church was no longer a stranger and a pilgrim, a bride waiting for the Bridegroom. She had settled into a permanent, accepted place on the earth.

"The faith" here means the thing believed. These false teachers really turned souls aside from the truth and led them away from what they had said they believed. It is not a question of salvation, but for the time, at least, these misguided people gave up the truth.

In teaching this they tampered with the very foundations of the faith of the gospel. They overthrew the personal faith of anyone who came under their power. They could not, of course, overthrow the faith of Christianity. That was a divine foundation, and whatever God founds always stands firm as a rock. Nor could they overthrow anything God had founded in the hearts of His people. That always remains, come what may, and "the Lord knows those who are His" — even if false teaching had misled them, so that others could no longer tell them apart.

Hymenaeus and Philetus had helped to overturn the foundations of the faith in some of the saints. But despite all that Satan had managed to do through them, the foundation of God stood, and was immovable. This is no small comfort in a day of confusion and ruin. The enemy may be allowed to wreck the public form of Christianity... but there still remains for faith this sure foundation of God on which souls may rest, whatever the fury of the storm, in perfect peace.

Some have guessed that it is the doctrine of the resurrection, others the promises, some again election. Others have suggested the church, or, with better reason, Christ Himself. But there seems no sufficient ground for defining the foundation in this place. If the Holy Spirit has left it general, why should anyone seek to limit the thought? The object clearly is to mark what stays firm and of God in the middle of confusion and ruin.

A foundation is supposed to be out of sight, but a seal is visible. We have the two metaphors here. A foundation is something settled that cannot be changed, and a seal is the emblem of authority, and the sign of unchangeable purpose... His seal is open to the inspection of all.

It has been well said that the seal on God's foundation has two sides. One bears the inscription, "The Lord knows those who are His." The other says, "Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity." The first is as peace-giving as the second is practical.

All those in Asia had turned away from the Apostle. The profession of Christianity was so widespread, and so merged in the world and worldly things, that the outward eye could no longer tell who were the true saints of God.

The foolish virgins have the profession, but not the Spirit — they are not Christ's... So when the Bridegroom comes, they are unprepared and shut out. "I do not know you," the Bridegroom says. Could this be said of any saint, however unsatisfactory his state? No; for it is written again, "The Lord knows those who are His."

The Greek word here for "iniquity" is adikia. W. E. Vine's Dictionary of New Testament Words says it means "a condition of not being right." We are to separate from all that is not right — from all that is not according to God's word.

This is not at all the question we have to judge when it comes to departing from iniquity. We are not asked to decide whether others are the Lord's... if one names the name of the Lord, he is responsible to depart from unrighteousness, whatever others may do, or whoever they may be... he is not told simply to abstain from it, but to depart from it, which means a separation in some very real sense.

In that account we have, "The Lord will show who are His, and who is holy," said by Moses in reply to Korah and his company. About Dathan and Abiram, he had to say, "Depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs."... We are neither sovereign nor all-knowing. God is both, and in due time He will make clear who are His. We are, however, responsible to act in line with His word, and avoid all sharing in the error and evil.

Here is a living picture of what the church was becoming. How different from the view given in the First Letter! (1 Tim. 3:15) There the house of God is called the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth... The assembly of the living God held out the truth before all eyes. But now, in the Second Letter, other things had flooded in. Ease had taken the place of suffering. Timidity had taken the place of courage. False teaching had come in, even about the most basic truths. So the Spirit of God pictures a very different state of things. The Spirit of God has not left His seat. But He no longer marks out the house as the house of the living God. It may look grander, yet there is far more that is unreal.

He does not say, "In the house of God," but "In a great house there are not only vessels..." He is using an illustration. It shows what professing Christianity has become — and that profession is indeed the house of God as man has built it (1 Cor. 3). It has become a mixed thing, like a great house holding vessels for honour and vessels for dishonour.

On the day of Pentecost the people who formed the House of God when the Holy Spirit came down were no "strangers." All were true children of God... But how soon the "stranger" came in. The baptism of Simon Magus brought a man into the company where the Spirit of God lived, a man who had no part or share in the matter. Others soon followed. So even in the apostles' day the House of God came to look like a great house.

Vessels of gold and silver are the vessels that belong to the service of the house of God. Nebuchadnezzar once took the gold and silver vessels from the temple at Jerusalem and carried them to Babylon (Dan. 5:2, 3). Vessels of wood and earth ought not to be in the house of God. Romans 9:21-23 shows us that vessels for dishonourable use are "vessels of wrath prepared for destruction," and vessels for honourable use are "vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory." So, broadly speaking, vessels of gold and silver stand for true Christians. They are vessels for honour. Vessels of wood and earth stand for people in the church who profess faith but are not converted.

The passage makes no unfair distinction between the vessels of gold and silver and the vessels of wood and earth. The "honour" of a vessel appears to depend on its use rather than on its own value. They are of different materials and for different uses. Vessels of gold and silver may be to the honour of the Master. Vessels of wood and clay may be to His honour just as much, since each is doing what it was made for.

You may take a golden vessel and use it for dishonour. When Belshazzar used the sacred vessels at his idol feast, they were put to a dishonourable use. In the same way, in the great house, where the vessels stand for people, a real believer in the Lord Jesus Christ may do something that dishonours the Lord Jesus Christ — perhaps gladly, and by mistake. But the Lord cannot approve that service, because it is tied to evil. A good servant taken up with an unholy service is a vessel to dishonour, not to honour.

This takes in the whole of Christendom, everyone who claims to own the lordship of Christ, the Master referred to in verse 21. There are vessels of gold and silver, vessels to honour, and the Master uses these when they are fit for use. There are vessels of wood and earth, vessels to dishonour, and the passage does not say that the Master uses those. The great point is to be fit for His use. That can only come through a true separation from the vessels to dishonour. This is where the real heart-searching must come, because no one can get outside the great house.

Surely "if a man purge himself from these" refers not to what follows, but to what came just before — that is, the vessels for dishonour in the great house. If so, what can purging himself "from these" mean, except separation from ungodly people who profess Christ? ... In the Apostles' days the true-hearted had no need to "form themselves into a separate community," because they were still able to purge the wicked out. But the principle is a wide one, and God provides in it for a time when the wicked might be too many and too strong. Then, if we cannot purge them out, we must purge ourselves from them.

You are sanctified and fit for the Master's use in proportion to your separation from these vessels — from persons, not merely from their doctrines ... It is not enough to reject their doctrines; their company contaminates you. You are coloured by the lowest company that you keep.

This word "purge" is ekkathairo — to purge out. It appears only twice in the New Testament: here, and in 1 Corinthians 5, where the Christians are told to "cleanse out the old leaven" and to "purge the evil person from among you." In 1 Corinthians 5 the Christians obeyed and purged out the leaven. In Second Timothy the Christians do not seem to be obeying that instruction, and the whole lump has become leavened. And NOW the instruction is for the faithful to purge themselves out from the leavened mass.

The professing church — what bore the name of Christ in the world — would become like a great house, where you find vessels of every kind, and for every use. What was to be done? Leave the Christian profession? Become unbaptized? That was impossible. There was no going out of the great house. Whatever state it was in, Christ was the Master of the house. ... So what was to be done? Stay with those who dishonoured Christ, because they too were in the great house? No.

To "purge himself" is the first duty of the faithful follower of the Lord. People say, "Why do you not try to put things right?" I have only to put myself right, because I am not competent to put others right. You put yourself right, and then you will help other people, and that is what I am trying to do.

If we separate from such vessels, we shall be vessels for honour ... sanctified, that is, set apart, and holy because set apart, and fit, or serviceable, for the Master's use — ready for every good work ... Do you want the Lord to use you? Here is His own qualification for service. And remember, that qualification is within our own reach, as we depend on Him who reveals it to us, and through the power He will give. Then, when once qualified, it is His to take us up and use us how, where, and when He will.

The two very similar expressions — "ready for every good work" and "equipped for every good work" — are very instructive when taken together. In the first we have the essential qualification for being useful to the Master ... The second expression points not so much to our state, as to our equipment for service.

"Flee youthful passions" is another application of the general principle "depart from iniquity." But this command demands personal holiness. Without it, separating from evil men would be nothing but hypocrisy. Paul uses the phrase "youthful passions" because Timothy was a young man. Of course, we are to flee all sinful desires and then pursue "righteousness, faith, love, peace." The world is full of sin, spiritual blindness, hatred and strife. The believer is to wear this four-fold character of Christ in the middle of it.

The apostle does not forget personal dangers when a man is taken up with public evils… It is useless to protest against what offends God in the church if your own conduct fails plainly enough for the people you criticise to see it… You must shun youthful passions — not only worldly or bodily ones, but "youthful" ones: impulsiveness, self-confidence, flippancy, impatience and the like.

We are also to make the pursuit of "righteousness, faith, love, peace" our great concern. This keeps us from becoming mere separatists in the spirit of "stand back, for I am holier than you!" Instead we will be busy and happy with what is good and of eternal worth.

He was to pursue practical consistency, that is, righteousness. He was to walk in faith, not in mere human caution or policy. He was to hold on to love, not to selfish interests. And he was to keep peace, not stir up strife or push for his own way.

The apostle does not command a lonely path for the one who separates himself from the vessels to dishonour… His place apart is not isolation, but insulation. Keeping yourself free from infection is a plain duty. But others will be doing the same.

To limit the pursuit of peace to those who call on the Lord in this way would give the poorest possible sense… Not so. Take the faithful man who has purged himself from vessels to dishonour and walks in self-judgment and in ways that please the Lord. He is cheered by the prospect of company on his path. He need not fear isolation… God will not fail to work in those whose hearts are cleansed by faith.

"With" means companionship, not isolation. To "call on the Lord" means to profess that you are subject to Him. "Out of a pure (or purged) heart" uses essentially the same word as "purge" in verse 21. It means calling on Him sincerely, with the whole person purged from evil — purged by holiness in your own life and holiness in your associations.

Note this: the sincere call is on the Lord Himself, not on the Name, as people often say. Paul's earnest desire was to "know Him", and so calling on Him becomes both a habit and an act of understanding.

Will his path be a lonely path? No. He will find other Christians moved by the Spirit of God, as he has been, to purge themselves from vessels to dishonour. Here and there they are calling on the Lord out of a pure heart. Such people will meet together — not as claiming to be the whole church of God, but as a remnant seeking to be loyal to the truth of God.

The literal meaning of the word is not quite "unlearned" but "undisciplined." It shows "a mind not subject to God, a man following his own mind and will." We should fear nothing more than the working of our own minds and wills in the things of God.

The truth is too vital and precious to turn into a mere argument. Foolish questions usually point to a heart that will not submit to the Word of God. Such questions need no answer. Avoid them, or they will only lead to strife... If someone truly wants to know the answer, let us give him the help he needs. But if he clearly asks in order to argue against the truth, he deserves no answer.

The same word covers shunning old wives' fables (1 Timothy 4:7), younger widows (1 Timothy 5:11), foolish and uninstructed questions (2 Timothy 2:23), and also a heretic in another passage. In none of these cases does it mean excommunication. It simply means avoiding those things or those people.

Separation from evil is the first step in God's path. If I cannot reform the evils of the Christian world around me, I am responsible to be right myself... Notice how often this letter calls for separation from evil, in different words and in different ways. The Apostle says: "avoid irreverent babble" (2 Timothy 2:16); "depart from iniquity" (2 Timothy 2:19); cleanse "himself from what is dishonorable" (2 Timothy 2:21); "flee youthful passions" (2 Timothy 2:22); "have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies" (2 Timothy 2:23); "avoid such people" (2 Timothy 3:5).

Whatever happens, the servant of the Lord must not enter into strife — he "must not be quarrelsome." If he lets a quarrel draw him in, he may end up completely defeated, even while he stands for the absolute truth. The servant is to remember that he is only the servant and not the Master. As the servant of the Lord, his business is to display the character of the Lord — gentleness, readiness to teach, patience and meekness when others oppose him... And when he presents the truth, he must not think that his clear presentation or his meek manner will make people accept it. Only God can bring anyone "to a knowledge of the truth."

It does not matter whether the question is right or wrong in itself. The devil can use a right question just as well as a wrong one, if he can raise that question to undue prominence and make it come between our souls and Christ, and between us and our fellow believers... But when we let any question take undue prominence, it stops being mere human weakness and becomes a trick of Satan.

The servant of the Lord must avoid strife at all costs. He cannot avoid conflict if he stays true to his Master. But he must not strive — that is, he must avoid the contentious spirit. He must never forget that although he stands for the Lord, he is only a servant. So he must show the meekness that fits that position. Earlier in the chapter we noticed various pictures of the different characters the believer wears. He is a soldier, an athlete, a farmer, a workman, a vessel — and now a servant, and not only a servant, but a servant of the Lord. So he must be careful not to misrepresent the character of the Lord whom he serves.

The word translated "strive" is better rendered "contend," and so is the word "strifes" in the verse before. "Contend" here means fighting, coming into conflict in an evil way. So the servant of the Lord must hold the truth despite all opposition. He must stand up to a fellow servant face to face if need be, as Paul did with Peter when the truth of grace was at stake. He must contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. But he must never step down from the platform of the truth — a positive revelation from God, entrusted to him as a witness — to fight with those who raise foolish and ignorant questions.

But aren't some people so trying that they deserve a sharp word, at the very least? He ought to be gentle towards all. The question is not how disagreeable people are, but whether we present Christ as we should. It is easy enough to wound or overthrow a man; but what if it grieves the Holy Spirit of God and dishonours Christ? Are we, as we should be, determined to bear patiently and to win by the irresistible might of meekness?

Let us remember that it is more important to display the character of Christ than to press our opinions, even right ones, or to defend ourselves. Men can oppose our opinions, our assertions and our forcefulness; but who can stand against gentleness? As someone has said, "Gentleness is irresistible."

The word didaktikos does not mean the gift of teaching in the strict sense. It means being fit to pass on whatever truth he has. Like all the other marks, it is a practical qualification, not a special gift. 2 Timothy 2:24 confirms this. There the word stands among the qualities that mark the manner of the Lord's servant — avoiding foolish questions, and dealing with souls for their instruction.

Many saints are slow of heart to receive fresh truth and to tell apart things that differ. It is natural to criticise, and for some even to ridicule. Readiness to teach assumes not only ability in the word, but love for the saints and faith in the Lord Jesus whom he serves.

In 2 Timothy 2:24, "patient" should be "bearing evil." He is to instruct those who oppose him with meekness, so that they may be recovered to God's will out of the snares of the devil.

The gentle and forbearing way He dealt with them is instructive too. In the Prophetic Servant we see a perfect example of the qualities the apostle Paul later urged on his dear son Timothy: "the servant of the Lord must not strive: but he must be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, forbearing, patient" (2 Tim. 2:24).

If others oppose, let him remember that they are really opposing themselves and their own good. He should long for God to work in blessing, through real repentance in such souls. The aim is never to prove the servant right. It is that by the grace of God the opposer may be recovered from the snare of the devil that has deluded him.

This, then, the Lord's servant was to seek "in meekness". He was not to put people down, which quick wit and a stubborn will would naturally do. He was to set them right, as grace loves to do, if it may be, with those who oppose themselves. Getting rid of people, even troublesome ones, does not occur to his patient mind.

If others oppose, let him remember that they are really opposing themselves and their own good. His concern is that God will work in blessing through true repentance in such souls, giving them a submissive acknowledgment of the truth. And of course this is not so that the servant should be proved right. It is so that by the grace of God the opposer may be recovered from the snare of the devil, which has deluded him.

And to keep the servant in such a spirit, he is always to remember that an opponent may yet be recovered. The enemy of today may, by the grace of God, be the friend of tomorrow. He is never to lose sight of this. He is to go on instructing in meekness, and looking to God to give those who oppose repentance leading to the acknowledging of the truth.

But it may be useful to speak briefly of "repentance"; for it goes far deeper than many think. It is a moral question rather than a mental one, though no doubt there is a change of mind of the utmost seriousness. But in repentance the soul is subject to God. His word judges, instead of being judged. There is therefore a moral revolution in the heart which takes God's side against itself. It condemns not only the acts of evil that rise before the conscience, but the whole ground and state of being which gave rise to them.

When we find people opposing the truth of God, let us always remember that it does not lie in our power to put them right. God may be pleased to use us for their blessing, but it is God who gives them repentance. We are to try to instruct such people from the word of God in a spirit of meekness, and to count on God to use the word spoken. Those who oppose have been trapped by Satan, though they hardly realise it. But God can use His word, spoken in meekness, to recover them, so that they may no longer be for Satan, but for God's will.

So it is good to seek grace to be found "in meekness instructing those that oppose." For this was the path of Christ, and no other. Only in this way can one hope to correct those who set themselves up as opponents. This alone may disarm them; grace is pleased to work this way. And the apostle puts this as a possible and desired outcome.

In some passages this compound word, above all in the verb form, means "certain personal knowledge, and the recognition that follows it: that a thing is true." We recognise because we know. This may help with the use of epignosis in passages such as 2 Timothy 2:25.

This, then, is what the Lord's servant was to seek "in meekness" [verse 25 in the ESV: "with gentleness"]. His aim was not to put people down, as quick wit and a stubborn will would naturally do. It was to set them right, as grace loves to do, if that is possible, with those who oppose themselves. Getting rid of people, however troublesome, does not occur to his patient mind. Still, such opposition is very serious, and the apostle shows us this by what he adds next.

And to keep the servant in such a spirit, he is always to remember that opponents may be recovered. The enemy of today may, by the grace of God, be the friend of tomorrow. Never losing sight of this, he goes on meekly instructing. He looks to God to give the opposers repentance, so that they acknowledge the truth and escape from the snare of the devil.

Does not a snare represent evil hidden under a fair exterior? The apostle Paul warns us against being deceived by "plausible arguments" [older translations read "enticing words"] (Colossians 2:4). He also tells us that in the professing Christian circle some will be caught "in the snare of the devil" (2 Timothy 2:26). … Whatever our knowledge and gifts, unless we are in secret communion — abiding in Christ — there is no snare into which we cannot fall.

A snare must be hidden to work. It is useless to set a net where a bird can see it. In the same way, the hook in fishing is always concealed. The baits Satan uses are things people like. They may not always be moral evils in themselves — riches, honour, and so on — but they may end in the loss of the soul.

It is not that the devil takes anyone captive at his will, but "for his will," as is the proper translation. Satan's will is not so dominant that he secures victims as he pleases. God does not allow it unless there is first some wrong attitude in the person, which makes them willing to be deceived. … God allows the captivity in order to humble the will of the victim, who feels the evil results of it. What a mercy if this captivity leads to a genuine desire for recovery!

The point raised is whether "his will" means God's will or Satan's. If it is God's, the meaning is that they come to their senses and escape "from the snare of the devil", where he has taken them captive, and that the aim of their recovery is that the will of God should govern them from now on. If it is Satan's, it means that these opposers are taken captive by Satan to do his will. Whichever view you adopt, you cannot resist the solemn teaching of the scripture: those who oppose the truth are instruments in the snare of Satan, and as such he has taken them captive as his prey. All who resist the truth of God, however eminent they may be in the world of intellect or science, are nothing more than the poor slaves of Satan. He leads them, if he does not inspire them, just as the Spirit of God leads and teaches the servants of the Lord.

This is a remarkably complicated sentence, and people eminent in godliness and scholarship have understood it very differently.

In repentance the soul is subject to God. His word judges, instead of being judged. There is therefore a moral revolution in the heart. It takes God's side against itself. It condemns not only the evil acts that rise before the conscience, but the whole ground and state of being that gave rise to them.

Here the English version renders it "shall come." But the meaning is certainly not "shall be at hand," which would have no point. It is "shall be present." To be only close at hand was a small thing. The serious point was that difficult times would actually be there in the last days.

Difficult or grievous times were to set in; not "perilous" merely, as in the Authorised and all the older English versions. The times are described this way because sin spreads widely under a fine Christian appearance — an outward form of godliness with a real denial of its power... He hates presumption. He seeks humility. He loves his brothers. He is bound to be faithful to Christ, and he cannot go on with evil, whether it is personal or shared by a group. It is a hard time truly for heart and conscience.

The phrase plainly covers the closing days of the Christian era, however long God may be pleased to prolong them. It means the time in general before the coming of the Lord. Then God will end His present ways, and the kingdom will come in displayed power and glory.

"The last days" began as soon as Paul was gone. John, who outlived him, could tell us, "Children, it is the last hour" (1 John 2:18). James says, "You have laid up treasure in the last days," and, "The Judge is standing at the door." Peter says, "ready to be revealed in the last time." He also says, "It is time for judgment to begin at the household of God," and, "Scoffers will come in the last days." So "the last days" is not merely the time in which we live... It is an expression used by all the apostles to describe the moral state that had come, or was just coming in.

In the earlier letter (1 Timothy 4:1-3) a prophetic warning had been given, but about evil quite different in time, character, and extent from what we have here. Instead of "last days," the Spirit spoke specifically of later, or after, times — that is, times following the apostle's writing. Instead of a widespread condition of "men" in Christendom, he there spoke of "some" only. The language suits and supposes comparatively few.

How different is the future of Christianity in this world from the pictures painted by its popular advocates! They love to sketch the gradual conversion of the world by the preaching of the gospel... What God reveals here about the course of Christianity dispels this illusion at once... He lifts the veil and lets us see that evil and corruption will increase. So, as the end comes near, we must expect difficult times, along with the corruption named here.

I know the path of the believer, and especially of the servant, is increasingly difficult in this evil day. But we have been forewarned, and our resource has been provided... If you examine the whole chapter you will find mainly three things. First, what marks these difficult times (vv. 2-9). Second, that persecution must be the lot of the godly (vv. 10-12). Third, that the word of God is our only resource (vv. 14-17).

This does not describe something that has always existed outside Christianity. It describes the corruption of what began in such heavenly power and blessing at the start of the present age of grace. The world as such was always evil. But in the company described at the beginning of the book of Acts there was nothing of what we get here. Then men loved God, and not themselves, but one another. Then men were not covetous, but each man gave all he had for the good of his neighbour.

"For men shall be lovers of self." That is the opening characteristic, so grievous to the Lord and His own among those bearing His name. It rightly holds first place in this list of Christ-dishonouring professors. It is the very mother of evils. It goes straight against the will of God in Christ Jesus for His children. Christ did die for all. But the moral purpose was that those who live "might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised." … So the first condition of discipleship, if we listen to our Lord, is denying self — the exact opposite of loving it.

This is well worth stressing. Some people today speak about loving oneself as if it were a right thing. But Second Timothy names it as a feature that marks corrupt Christian profession in the last days.

The word philargyria literally means 'love of money'. It is the miser's sin, and a man may indulge it while professing religion. So in Luke 16:14 it is applied to the Pharisees, and in 2 Timothy 3:2 to those who had a form of godliness but denied its power. This love of money is a root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10). Those who chase it are liable to wander away from the faith and pierce themselves with many sorrows.

Loving self will lead to loving money, for with money men can buy what will feed the gratification of self.

"Boasters." The love of money will turn men into boasters. Men boast in their skill at gaining wealth. And having piled up riches, they often take the chance to advertise their acts of charity. This is the opposite of the lowly grace of Christianity, which teaches us to give so that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.

"Disobedient to parents." If men are capable of blasphemy against God, it is little wonder that they are disobedient to parents. If they have little respect for divine Persons, they will have no respect for human relationships.

The men of this age stand out for their ingratitude (see 2 Timothy 3:2). They see the hand of God in nothing. If things happen to go well with them, they only say, "My luck was in." It is our privilege to see the hand of God in all things. Walking in His fear, we trace His ways with us in a thankful spirit.

At the start of the letter to the Romans, Paul lists the sins and abominations of heathen life. They show the moral state of men in those times of darkness and demon-worship. Compare that list with the catalogue of sins that marks those who have the form of godliness. We shall find it is nearly the same, and in moral character quite the same. Only some of the open sins are missing — the ones that mark a man under no outward restraint. The form of godliness rules them out and takes their place.

Look at this passage. It is a very solemn and clear testimony of the Spirit of God. It speaks of professing Christendom going back to a state like that of the pagan world, which the Spirit describes in Romans 1. Here the Spirit is not saying that the pagan world would be like this in the last days. He had already proved that it was so. But in the last days it would be so of those who had the form of godliness while denying the power.

Human love is the greatest gift of the Creator, surviving the fall, yet spoiled by it. In this life, it is the one bit of cement that holds society together. Without it we would have the very uproar of hell about our ears.

There is no human centre and safeguard greater than home, with its many affections and the duties it involves… But here we learn of a dark and threatening change. Christendom in general does not merely show indifference to these ties of family life. It tramples them down as contemptible and would throw them out as unworthy nuisances. It makes a show of world citizenship as the true ideal. That ideal is wholly unreal and does not work, so the result is pure selfishness — a barren waste with no objects given by God for the heart, where self-will runs riot as it pleases.

The lack of natural affection is a horrible result of false Christian profession. The wider hardness that follows is its companion, in place of that universal love which is loudest in theory when there is least of it in practice. The word goes further than the breaking of a truce that the Authorized Version and other translations attach to it. It expresses the lawless state that refuses to take on any such obligation. It is bad enough to fail to keep faith. It is much worse, as here, when men's hearts say, "Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us."

Next in the list comes the character of "slanderers", or "false accusers", as the Authorized Version has it — the same title that belongs to the arch-enemy, the devil. Is it not solemn that the Holy Spirit has to describe men this way — not mere pagans, but men who bear the Lord's name in the last days?

The next word is "uncontrolled", rather than "incontinent". Usage limits "incontinent" to a lack of self-restraint in impurity. The word here takes the fullest range: reckless indulgence in action, as the word before it does in spirit and speech. So the moral connection is clear.

"Fierce" or "savage". The man who slanders others in speech and has no restraint in his actions will show a savage temper. It wholly lacks the gentleness that marks the Christian spirit.

The savage temper always blinds men to what is good. Some in the Christian profession do not only love evil; they hate "what is good".

These moral features were already beginning to appear. They will show more and more clearly while the Lord Jesus waits, until at last they reach their full growth in the sins and corruptions described here. So when the Apostle adds, "from such turn away," he gives a direction that applies to every age. It shows that it is the Lord's mind for His people to be entirely separate from all this moral corruption.

This adds another shade of wickedness: the "treacherous", or "traitors". It is the form of malice that betrays others to ruin without a second thought. The Lord tasted this bitter baseness among His twelve disciples as no one ever did or could. This verse warns us that it will be a mark of Christendom. The trait was there here and there even when the apostle wrote, but like the rest it will spread and deepen as the last days drag on.

"Heady" or "headlong". The man who can betray his friends is the man who will drive on with his own will. He does not care what it costs, and he gives no thought to others.

"High-minded" or "of vain pretensions". The headlong man is full of self-conceit. He tries to cover his self-will with the empty pretence that he is acting for the general good.

Love of self, love of money and love of pleasure are to mark the religious people of the last days. All the evil things listed between them show the different ways the proud, self-sufficient, lawless spirit of fallen man expresses itself. And all this, remember, is in people who call themselves followers of the meek and lowly Jesus. If we know anything of the present state of the so-called Christian nations, we may well conclude that we have reached the last days.

Who can deny how plainly and how strongly "pleasure-loving rather than God-loving" has grown? It is not new, of course, but it is stronger in our own day than ever. And it grows among people who would be deeply offended if they were not counted as Christians. When in this world's sad history was there ever such a constant, widespread whirl of excitement — travel and change, sweet sounds, pleasant pictures, and sensational tales? And that is to say nothing of lower kinds of bodily pleasure.

The clouds of coming judgment may be gathering. But Christendom is blinded by its own vanity and selfishness. It gives itself up to a whirl of excitement and looks for its pleasure in the senses. Too often the professed ministers of religion lead the way in every kind of worldly pleasure.

Compare Romans 1:29-31. You will see that the evil to be turned away from was as bad as the evil among the pagans. It was only worse here, because it stood in the place of light and under the pretence of light.

Too often the amusements of the evening lead to the neglect of the Bible in the morning. This happens again and again, until the soul goes numb under the round of worldly fun and the lack of spiritual food. Then the life on show can only be described as "lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God". Surely all would shrink from such a brand!

It is Christendom that comes before us. Yet those bearing the Lord's name can only be called "men". In their morals they are as corrupt and violent as the heathen (compare Romans 1:29-31), if not as gross. They keep a form of godliness while they have denied its power.

Godliness is the one thing worth having. All else is corruption and evil. To have the form of what is good, and for it to be only a form, is sad beyond words. It is a form with none of the power that belongs to true godliness — a shell without a kernel.

The "form of godliness" not only lacks what is real; it also denies the true power. Even the leaders of Christendom deny the need for the new birth and for conversion to God. They deny the need for a living faith in the Son of God to guide in the things of God. They have the outward forms of christening and confirmation and such things, and wrongly imagine the form is what God demands.

In the closing days of Christendom the professing mass will give themselves over to every form of evil. They will try to cover their wickedness with the cloak of sanctity. So nominal Christians become more wicked than pagans. They indulge in all the evils of paganism, then add to their wickedness by hiding it under the form of Christianity. That form is empty of Christianity's spiritual power. What can be more desperately wicked than using the Name of Christ as a cloak for evil? This cloak of sanctity is what makes the last days "difficult times". The show of piety at times deceives even true Christians.

The answer is that these moral features were already beginning to appear. They will appear more and more clearly while the Lord Jesus delays. At last they will reach their full growth in the sins and corruptions described here. So when the Apostle adds, "from such turn away," he gives a direction for every age. It shows that it is the Lord's mind for His people to be in complete separation from all this moral corruption.

This was not to "go out" from the house of God but to be separate from the evil done in the Lord's name. Such separation is owed to Him. It is to depart from evil, but not to forsake the Christian profession… But no one is to slight fellowship: each is to seek out and cling to it with all who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

There is no need to know evil fully, for we do not escape evil simply by knowing about it. It is by knowing the truth that we can detect what is false and contrary to the truth. Having detected the evil, we should not dwell on it, but "turn away" from those who pursue it.

The description of verses 2 to 5 applies generally to the men of the last days. In verse 6 two special classes come into view — first, those who are active deceivers, and second, those who fall an easy prey to their deceits. The deceivers, he says, are "of this sort," that is, of the kind described in verses 2 to 5. They carry on their work in a semi-private way, for they "creep into houses."

First, the manner of their procedure is given. They are of the kind "which creep into houses." Almost all false teaching begins in secret — at least the kind that claims a superior spirituality. It gathers a school of followers before it comes out into the open. Some of the saddest heresies that have ever troubled the Church of God started this way. They spread by private visits, or by passing "notes" around a chosen sympathetic few. This method carries its own condemnation; for whatever will not bear the light cannot be of God, and whatever is given by Him is for the Church.

Nothing can justify underhand manoeuvres: Christ does not ask such service from anyone; He refuses it. "In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." It was to be like the lamp on the stand, shining for everyone in the house. How sad when those who profess Christ, the only true Light, are driven by the spirit of darkness! They creep into the houses of the saints and lead captive silly women.

The Apostle probably uses the contemptuous term "silly women" for a weak class of people, whether male or female. Their emotions and lusts govern them, rather than conscience and reason. Error leaves its victims in the darkness of uncertainty.

It is a striking fact that this "silly women" class comes just as much from the refined and learned as from the rude and uneducated. It is often the highly educated who lose themselves in mazes of speculation. In the end they accept some pretentious nonsense that is the exact opposite of the truth.

Those who adopt a religion that encourages moral corruption are quite content to live a lie. They are especially successful in making victims of women who are easily drawn by their emotions and have willingly ignored their consciences. "Laden with sins," having no desire to be rid of them, and "led away by their own lusts," they are glad of a religion that silences the serious voice of conscience.

Having many sins on their conscience, these women would be especially open to any teaching that promised both relief and freedom. It is what the flesh always craves — deliverance from past sins, and indulgence for present pleasures. Hoping to get both from the new teaching, they became the willing slaves of their evil teachers.

All these evils are hidden under a form of godliness. It is the Spirit of God who, through the Apostle, drags them out into the light for our warning and guidance. Under such a cloak these men might outwardly pass, as the Pharisees of old did, for devout and devoted men.

Has the enemy given up these devices in our day? Are we to flatter ourselves that this same way of error, so successful in the past, will not be repeated again and again in the present while the Lord waits?

These women are quick to understand, but they fail in spiritual mind. They confuse things that differ instead of telling them apart. Without that, no true progress and no real knowledge are possible. What is needed is Christ before the soul. The written word answers to Him by the power of the Holy Spirit. This alone opens the truth and gives courage to acknowledge it to God's glory. Without Him the mind may stay busy, proud of what it has picked up. But there is no growth. There is no separating power through the word. There is no joy in God through our Lord Jesus, and never the ability, as it says here, to come to full knowledge of truth.

They always ask questions. They are always open to new ideas. Yet they never reach a settled conviction about anything. "What is truth?" is their perpetual cry. The words "burdened with sins and led astray by various passions" show the reason for this strange inability to reach definite knowledge. When a life is loaded with sins, and clashing desires and passions turn the heart into a battleground, no conviction from God is possible.

The Spirit of God does act on the understanding and through it. But the truth lodged there speaks to the conscience and the heart. If the truth does not reach them, nothing is done. Nor indeed is anything really understood until they are... On the other hand, Satan fills the mind with error. In that way he shuts God out of it and leads the whole person captive, to do the will of that enemy of the soul.

The Apostle probably uses the scornful term "silly women" for a weak class of persons, male or female. Emotions and desires govern them, not conscience and reason. Error leaves its victims in the darkness of uncertainty.

There was never such a day for religious books, sermons, and teaching. Yet "the truth" is unknown, and the Lord Jesus is still outside knocking at the door, unheard by most. People refuse the truth of Christianity and the present position of Christ in glory. Many "truths" may be taught and new ideas chased, but the learners are as far from it as ever.

We may boast, as everyone does, that we have the Scriptures — and that is surely good... Or are we among those who are "always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth"? The truth has reached our mind and intellect, but without faith, and so it has no practical value in our lives. Of the truth we can say what is said of faith: "What profit, my brothers, if a man says he has the truth?" What profit, if he has not shown that he has faith in it, and so has not learned to act on it as something he believes?

We must study and investigate truth with the intention to obey, not to speculate. "If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God." Every student of the truth takes the place of a disciple, not of the Master... Suppose the secret aim is to feed the imagination, or to satisfy the craving to know. Then know this: you shall be "always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth"... The heart's value of the truth is what stirs diligence in pursuing it. This, and not the mind's dry activity, sets the rate and measure of progress.

Jannes and Jambres were no doubt the leaders of the Egyptian magicians who imitated the first plagues before Pharaoh. But when it came to the question of creating life, they had to admit that the finger of God was there. The judgement of God fell on them too, for they were struck with boils and sores. As their folly was shown up when they contended with the God of Israel, so will the folly be of those who oppose the truth.

Some details not mentioned in the Old Testament we learn only in the New. For example, here we come to know the names of the Egyptian magicians. Jewish oral tradition preserved not only tales but also various true events of earlier days. The writers of the New Testament could refer to such events under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. But was it not also possible that they received direct revelations from God?

The way Jannes and Jambres "opposed Moses" was simply by copying, as far as they could, whatever he did. We do not find that they said his actions came from a false or evil power. Instead, they tried to cancel out the effect of those actions on the conscience by doing the same things themselves. One was as good as the other. A miracle is a miracle. If Moses worked miracles to get the people out of Egypt, they could work miracles to keep them in — so where was the difference?

If you trace the forms of Satan's opposition to the truth of God, you find his method has always been the same. First he opposes it by open violence. Then, if that does not work, he corrupts it by producing a counterfeit. So he first sought to kill Moses (Ex. 2:15), and having failed in that, he sought to imitate his works.

They could only make the trouble worse by what they did; they could not relieve it. They could bring frogs up out of the river, but they could not take them away. So they could not possibly loosen the grip of judgement on themselves or on their false gods... After all, no one can imitate the fruit of God's blessed word or the power of His Spirit. That has its own unmistakable evidence for everyone who has eyes to see.

These opponents worked by imitating Moses as far as possible. They could only do this within limits. In the end the power of God rose in such display that it was hopeless for them to follow. In Christendom imitation is easier, because it is not a question of miracle but of the appearance of truth. It is striking that the enemy's newest and most destructive lures are typically imitations of truth. They come so close that they would deceive even God's chosen, if that were possible.

People of this kind can do the same things as others. They take up the same habits and forms, use the same language, and hold the same opinions. Think of the true Christian, moved by the love of Christ. He feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, visits the sick, hands out Bibles and tracts, supports the gospel, prays, sings praise and preaches. The man who keeps only the outward form can do every one of these things. And notice: this is the special way people resist the truth "in the last days." This is the spirit of Jannes and Jambres.

The outward dress of these resisters of the truth will look Christian, but the opened eye will see it is not the real thing — it is an imitation. More than that, the Holy Spirit exposes their true character. They are men of corrupt minds. They are reprobate — tried and found worthless — regarding the faith.

Every false system in Christendom can be traced back to men whose minds have been corrupted by evil and who are found worthless as regards the faith.

A moment will come when the leaders of this bold imitation are suddenly checked and stopped. Their folly will be shown to everyone, as the folly of Jannes and Jambres was. God allowed them to keep pace with every step Moses took. Then the simplest fact of all showed that their power had reached its limit. They could not go on.

Notice that last triumph of God. He drew the words from the mouths of Satan's instruments: "This is the finger of God!" Their folly is plain to all. Satan's deceiving power and his plausible counterfeits are worthless in the presence of life. Living realities speak for God more than anything else. They could go no further than this. The imitation might be so good that no one could match it. The counterfeit might be so near the truth, so alike, that everyone was fooled. But there is the life of Christ lived out on earth. Christ lives in His own people and produces a deep reality that no imitation can ever reach. Beside that, the folly of them all is plain, as theirs also was.

So God does not fail to raise up a standard against the enemy, and His endangered saints profit by the warning. The comparison holds true for the dazzling counterfeit, which was made to confuse and mislead. It holds true just as much for the exposure of the trap itself. Once that happens, the counterfeit can do no more harm. The folly of those who invented and pushed it is too plain to injure anyone further. Have we not seen the enemy defeat himself in this way under the mighty hand of God? Let us not forget how much we owe to the watchful grace of our Lord, who vindicates His word and Spirit after man has misused both.

Yet God, in the way He governs the world, often lets these false teachers be fully exposed before the eyes of "all". Again and again the world has seen the folly of these religious systems and the evil lives of many of their leaders. They have become objects of contempt to everyone except their deluded victims.

These men resist the truth, and their folly will be shown up. God may show it up wherever there is faithfulness, to save His own from it. But in general their evil work will go on. The deception will grow worse and worse until the end. Then God will make plain the folly of those who have departed from Him. They gave themselves up to the errors of the human mind, and they worked to keep those errors alive and spread them.

The folly of Jannes and Jambres was plain to all. They not only failed to imitate what Moses and Aaron did next; they were caught up in the judgments of God themselves. This is a solemn point. The folly of everyone who has only the outward form will be shown up in the same way. They will be quite unable to imitate the full and proper effects of divine life and power. More than that, they will fall under the judgments that come from rejecting the truth they have resisted.

Here we get Paul's doctrine (v. 10) and the manner of life which flowed from it. "You have fully known" — that is, he had a perfect understanding of it. He had fully followed up his teaching, having learned it thoroughly. The manner of life goes with it.

It is of great importance to observe that "my doctrine," or teaching, comes first. His teaching was the truth committed to his trust. From this we learn two things. Nothing will keep the saints safe in a time of widespread error except the possession of divine truth. And a walk according to God — for "manner of life," or conduct, comes next in the list — can only flow out from a knowledge of the truth. Only the truth builds up and sanctifies. So it lies at the base of all steadfastness, and at the same time it forms a walk worthy of the Lord. Then follows "purpose." He will not say "faithfulness," for the Lord alone judges how faithful His servants are. He says "purpose," because, through grace, it was the one desire of his heart to follow the Lord in all circumstances and at all costs.

The apostle's "course" or "conduct" also had great value. It put the truth into practice — the truth that shaped his judgments and feelings day by day. There is no better comment on the inspired word than the walk of those who obey it, whether one believer or a whole company.

He can also mention faith. Confidence in God marked this devoted servant in all his trials. This alone sustained him amid the corruption that seemed to be flowing in from every side. This alone also made him "long-suffering" while all this was going on, and even towards the opponents of the truth. It made him show divine "love" in the presence of the evil, even though the more he loved the less he was loved. And it made him "patient," able to endure, because he knew, despite all appearances, what the final outcome of the conflict would be.

People saw this "manner of life" in Paul — a man with the same passions we have. He was the living expression of his own teaching. He points to his "aim in life," "faith," "patience," "love," "steadfastness" — and to the persecutions and sufferings he met at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra, out of which the Lord delivered him. Such was the course of this man. A course like this would silence the false imitation that was resisting the truth. Those imitators were always learning and never able to reach the knowledge of it.

When we listen to those who present the Word of God, we must be careful. We must tell the difference between the person and the message he announces. We must not give the person an importance that belongs to the Scriptures alone. How good it is when we see that the speaker's conduct matches his teaching and cannot be separated from it! This was the case with Timothy and the apostle Paul. Timothy could know and follow both his teaching and his conduct, because in Paul the two agreed so closely.

Timothy was thoroughly acquainted with what happened to the apostle at Antioch (of Pisidia), at Iconium, and at Lystra. Persecution fell on Paul in that order. He and Barnabas made their return journey in the reverse order. On the way back they strengthened the souls of the disciples converted a little before (Acts 14). In all this suffering and opposition the Jews were guilty of stirring up the Gentiles against the word of life and against those who preached it. So when it came to close quarters, stoning was the method used.

Timothy fully knew what persecutions Paul endured at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra. Most of these persecutions happened on Paul's first missionary journey (Acts 14). Timothy was perhaps only a boy then. But he knew all about them, and may have seen some of them himself. At Lystra Paul was stoned and dragged out of the city, taken for dead. Very likely the boy Timothy was among the disciples who "stood around him" when he "rose up and went into the city." … Yet he did not hesitate to follow Paul. He must have known well that it would mean sharing similar persecutions.

Paul's walk comes very close to the walk of Christ. For this reason the Holy Spirit often leads him to point to himself as an example to others. That is the case here. He has been describing the moral corruption that will mark the dangerous times of the last days. He also has in mind the difficulties of those who want to be faithful to the Lord, as Timothy did. So he sets himself before them as a pattern for all who find themselves in these circumstances.

If he recounts his sufferings in his service and testimony, it is only to magnify the Lord's faithfulness. He adds, "But out of them all the Lord delivered me." There may have been persecutions. But like the psalmist he had to say, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous," and he could join in the same testimony, "But the LORD delivers him out of them all" (Ps. 34:19).

There is a further source of security, for, thirdly, we read of the support of the Lord. Paul can witness to this from his own experience. Speaking of the sufferings and persecutions that his life involved, he can say, "Out of them all the Lord delivered me." If we work hard to know the doctrine, and are ready to live a life consistent with it, we shall know the support of the Lord.

In His wise government God allows the afflictions of the righteous to be many. But His goodness toward them is fully equal to the need, and He delivers them out of them all. Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:18, "The Lord will deliver me from every evil work." This deliverance did not mean he would not suffer. In fact, the evil work of Satan led to Paul's execution in prison, but that was the very means of his deliverance.

Notice that it does not say all Christians, nor all who live godly, but all who will live godly in Christ Jesus must be persecuted. Put the stress on the word "will." It means there is a real desire, even a purpose of heart, to live this way.

It does not say that every Christian will be persecuted. It says, "all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." If a man shows the power of the Spirit of God, the world will not put up with it. That is the principle.

Notice the three key words in that verse — "IN CHRIST JESUS." By its very nature that involves a testimony, even in daily life, that goes beyond the godliness of a Jew. It brings in our distinct place as people set apart from the world, from its basic principles, its sayings and its ways. That can lead to conflict at every turn.

Those who "live a godly life in Christ Jesus" must always expect persecution, though its form may vary from country to country and from age to age. The kind of godliness the law of Moses produced might stir up little or no opposition. Godliness "in Christ Jesus" meets fierce resistance.

People and governments give different reasons for persecuting Christians. We believe the real cause is the heart's enmity against Christ and His truth, seen in the godly lives of His people. Their light also shows up the darkness around them. It exposes and rebukes the inconsistencies of those who claim a faith they do not have, and the godless lives of the wicked.

Whatever form this takes — being shut out, strong criticism, contempt, loss of property or goods, discrimination that takes away rights that are properly ours — all who live a godly life in Christ Jesus will know something of it. Let us bear it patiently for Christ's sake.

Suppose we are faithful to the light God has given us, and seek to walk apart from all that denies the truth. Then we will find, in our small measure, that we have to face persecution and opposition — and, in its most painful forms, from our fellow Christians. When the trial comes, it is good for us if we can do as Paul did: hand everything over to the Lord and wait for Him to vindicate us in that day.

If any who call themselves Christians do avoid the hostility of the world or the enmity of Satan, they can only do so at the expense of faithfulness to Christ.

If we compromise, we may avoid it in large measure — and lose our power. If we stay separate, we must face it in some way... If it is absent, that is no credit to us, but the opposite. It would mean that the great enemy knows we are harmless to his plans, so he wastes no energy on us.

It is wise, and even a duty for believers, to make up their minds to suffer this way for righteousness and for Christ. Then they will not be surprised by the fiery trial among them, which comes to test them, as though something strange were happening to them.

Note this well: these evil men and deceivers are not men of the world. They are inside the professing church, claiming to be Christians. They keep a form of godliness while they deny its power. This fact shows once more that there is no hope for Christianity in its public form in this world. There is no prospect of its recovery or purification.

The magicians of Egypt are the pattern of these misleaders. The way they worked was to imitate Moses as far as they could. They could only do that up to a point. Once the power of God rose up in display, they could copy no further. In the Christian world imitation is easier, because it is not a question of miracle but of the appearance of truth. And it is striking: the new and destructive deceptions of the enemy are usually imitations of truth. They come so close that they would deceive even God's chosen ones, if that were possible.

The evil spoken of is not the gross immorality that marked many of the clergy before the reformation, but deception. Fair words deceive souls. A form of godliness that denies its power lulls them into a false sense of security. Those who deceive in this way are themselves deceived, being the tools of Satan.

They handle truth and error in whatever way they think will best serve their own interests. The more attention they gain from people willing to be deceived, the bolder they become. In the end they are deceived by their own deceptions.

Believers will not be shocked that the world grows clearly worse as a whole, and that the crowd who profess Christ grows worse with it. This happens in the face of every testimony of God's grace and truth. Instead they will hold to the word all the more. The spread of evil only confirms that word, while conversion goes on actively. Could words set out the real character of this progress more vividly and exactly, for the man who bows to Scripture? If we refuse to bow, a blinding power is already on us. We are led astray ourselves as we mislead others, in proportion to the error and to our influence.

The Apostle holds out no hope of recovery on the part of the mass. On the contrary, he warns us more than once that, with the passing of time, there will be an increase of evil. Profane and empty chatter will increase (2 Timothy 2:16). Evil men and deceivers will go from bad to worse (2 Timothy 3:13). And the time will come when the Christian profession will not endure sound doctrine, but will turn its ears away from the truth (2 Timothy 4:3).

Against so dark a background, verse 14 presses the responsibility of the individual child of God — here, Timothy: "But as for you, continue." Under the pressure of evil, people fall away and drop by the wayside all too often. What mercy at such a time to have learned and been assured of the solid, pure truth of Christianity. But one must still be urged to continue in it.

See how morally fitting this is. If we lose our nerve today, how can we be trusted tomorrow? Tomorrow will be worse than today.

The apostle shows that the decline will go on, and that it will not be set aside. "Evil people and impostors," he says, "will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived." Then he gives the resource for such times. It is as much as to say: you cannot trust the church. It will have only the appearance of godliness while denying its power. Your resource must be the holy Scriptures of truth.

Experience proves too often that believers can make no firm stand against error, because they are not "fully persuaded" of the truth. When we face error, and especially error mixed with truth, we need to be completely sure that what we have learned is true. We can only be sure of it by knowing that the one who gave us the truth speaks with inspired authority. A teacher can bring the truth before us, but no teacher can speak with inspired authority. He must direct us to the inspired writings of the apostles if we are to hold the truth in faith and assurance.

People say now that the church teaches these things, but I ask, what is that? The church? What do they mean? It is all something in the air; there is no inspired person in the church now to teach. I must go to Paul and to Peter, and then I know from whom I learn.

He was not told to cling to a system on the ground that it was ancient, that it had a splendid past, and could point to miraculous evidence. There was no argument of this kind, no appeal to the senses in any way. The ground was simply this — the authority of the word of the Lord. We need not argue about the relative merits of rival religious views. We have simply to open our ears and learn the truth by coming to the Scriptures.

People sometimes say it does not matter who taught; but God does not treat the matter so lightly. It is often a very great safeguard for the saint of God. The apostle well knew that God had brought these glorious truths to man and had shown His grace. He had also given a witness of their reality in the man from whom Timothy had learned them. It is an immense blessing that we have the truth not only in a book, but in a practical shape, the truth that comes out of the heart and from the lips of living men of God.

Security rests on being certain of the direct source of the teaching he had received, and on the Scriptures, received as genuine and inspired documents. We remain in what we have learned, because we know from whom we learned it. The principle is simple and very important. We grow in divine knowledge. But as far as God teaches us, we never give up what we learned from a directly divine source in exchange for new opinions, because we know that it came from Him.

It is clear that "knowing from whom you have learned them" now resolves itself into the Scriptures.

After speaking of Timothy having learned the truth from himself, the apostle says, "and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings." Here is the well-known book so entitled, which, as such, had authority. As a child, he had known it and learned its contents. And these scriptures, through faith in Christ Jesus (the great key to all), were able to make him wise to salvation. No doubt what Timothy knew as a child was the Old Testament. But whatever has a claim to be called the sacred writings comes under this title, and enjoys the privileges that go with it.

What a heritage for any child! To know the Holy Scriptures. We may have little to leave our children in the way of earthly goods. But if we have given them the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures from childhood, we have given them greater riches, greater treasures, than anything else this world has. Lois the grandmother and Eunice the mother both had real faith. His father was a Greek, so we may be sure it was they who taught Timothy the Holy Scriptures while he was still an infant — that is what the Greek word means.

It is good to have the young mind well stored with the precious truth of Scripture. For many years there may be no sign of the quickening work of God. But when that work does come, all that was learned in childhood becomes a mine of wealth. The Spirit of God can use it to enlighten the heart and settle it in the knowledge of the divine mind. The seed sown may take long to germinate.

Notice too that the apostle does not assume Timothy was already wise for salvation. Why is this? Because, I think, he needed the wisdom for the moment, as we do. Last year's wisdom is not enough for today… "Able to make you wise." What does this mean? A wise man does not only act rightly. He must act rightly, of course. But the wise man is the one who acts for God. The wise man is the one the mind of God controls.

Even the sacred writings are only able to make wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. This however they are. Without faith in Christ salvation and wisdom from above are alike impossible.

The true knowledge of Scripture will always lead us to the feet of Jesus. But mere head-knowledge, without heart-love for Christ, will only make us more effective agents in the hands of Satan.

The Apostle Paul reminded Timothy that the sacred writings, which he had known "from childhood" — the Old Testament, therefore — were able to make him "wise for salvation." That means saved not only from future doom, but also from the dangers along the road we travel.

The apostle shows that the decline will go on, that it will not be set aside. For "evil people and impostors," he says, "will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived." Then he gives the resource for such times. It is as much as to say: you cannot trust the church, which will have only a form of godliness while denying the power. Your resource must be the holy scriptures of truth.

It is a distortion of the truth to say that the writers were inspired but the writings were not. If 2 Peter 1:21 supports the first, the claim for the second is even plainer in 2 Timothy 3:16... It is not a question of human weakness, but of God's power. Every Scripture is inspired by God. According to Paul, not only the men were inspired, but the writings as well.

In creation God shaped a body out of clay — "the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground" — and it became a living being only after God breathed into it. In the same way, these writings would otherwise be only a pile of separate pieces. But God breathed into every part, so they became one living whole. They are living and powerful, because they are the inspired Word of God.

No doubt the Holy Scriptures Timothy had known since he was a child were the Old Testament Scriptures. But then the apostle states that "Every Scripture is divinely inspired." So he includes the New Testament and all the writings of the apostles. We know that Peter classes all Paul's letters with "the other Scriptures" (2 Peter 3:16).

Since all Scripture is from God, it is all profitable, even genealogies and names of cities. If my interpretation of it does not give spiritual profit, then my interpretation of it is not right.

Note the order. First it is profitable for doctrine. We get doctrine from the Word of God alone, and it is the foundation of everything. Next comes "reproof," or conviction. After that come correction and instruction in righteousness. It starts with doctrine and leads, after conviction and correction, to righteousness.

It means being ready right now for any situation. The man who knows the Word of God and is subject to it is ready for every emergency. He does not need to cram for the moment, or go and look things up in his reference books, or get ready on a point beforehand. He is ready now.

He brings out the infinite value of the Scriptures — that is, of what was written. They are the one supreme resource for dangerous times, when we no longer have apostles present to help us in person. It is not only what had been preached. It is something permanent, given for the good of God's people on earth.

A man of God is a servant who represents God before men and upon whom God has impressed His own character. Such a man speaks for God; his words carry the weight of God's own words. It is a solemn and dignified role. But it reduces man to nothing and takes away all confidence in the flesh. Moses and David are each called a man of God; this name is also applied to the prophets in a time of ruin. Timothy was a man of God. 2 Timothy 3:17 shows us that he was prepared for his commission by the Word.

In the New Testament the expression "man of God" only occurs in the letters to Timothy. In the First Letter it is applied to Timothy himself. In the Second Letter it covers all who walk in faithful obedience to the word of God in an evil day.

Timothy himself is called a "man of God" (1 Tim. 6:11). Sadly, this cannot be said of all believers. It is true only of those whose one chief object is to honour God. As far as this is true of us, the Word will furnish us "unto all good work." … The Word holds the complete furnishing, but we must apply it seriously and practically.

Finally, Paul adds the goal of a true knowledge of the Scriptures: "That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Weigh the added force of the words "perfect" and "thoroughly furnished," and they will guide us into the Apostle's meaning. The first word is found only in this place. It might be translated "complete," "suitable," or "exactly fitted." The second is used only twice, and might be given as "fully equipped."

This word means present readiness for any emergency. The man who knows the Word of God and is subject to it is ready for every emergency. He has no need to go and cram for an occasion — to consult his authorities — to make himself up on a point. He is ready now. If an anxious inquirer comes, he is ready; if a curious inquirer comes, he is ready; if a sceptic comes, he is ready. In a word, he is always ready.

The preparation for every good work in chapter 2 refers rather to the personal state required for service. The passage before us points out something further. Divine knowledge, gathered from the Scriptures, is also needed to make the man of God suitable for service, and to furnish or equip him for every good work.

The Bible is enough on its own to perfect — that is, to completely equip — believers who are so far on spiritually that they are called "men of God." Suppose the verse had stopped at the perfecting of the man of God. People could then have argued that Scripture perfects us in broad doctrine but not in the details of daily conduct. But no, Scripture completely equips the man of God in a detailed way to all good works. It covers all work that God can call "good."

Here we have "the man of God" in the middle of all the ruin and confusion, the heresies and moral corruption of the last days. He stands out in his own distinct individuality, "perfect and thoroughly furnished to all good works." And may we not ask: what more could be said in the church's brightest days? Go back to the day of Pentecost itself, with all its display of power and glory. Have we anything higher, better, or more solid?

Paul wanted to put forward God Himself and the risen Man, who is to deal with mankind supremely in the coming day.

These are solemn and weighty words. They need to be weighed reverently in God's presence, especially by the Lord's servants. They set Timothy, and with him the worker in every age, in full view of his responsibility. At the same time they remind him of the judgment seat where the character of all service will finally be tested. It is, in fact, a searching appeal to the conscience. Everything that has to do with responsibility, government and judgment is gathered here into one view.

That solemn testimony which Paul speaks of is before God and Christ Jesus, who is about to judge living and dead. This judging is always near. Another apostle puts it this way: Christ "is ready to judge the living and the dead" (1 Peter 4:5). Only our text speaks of the judgment as a continuous process, while the other sums it up in its conclusion.

He will judge the living at His appearing, as the Tribulation comes to an end. He will judge the dead a thousand years later, at the Great White Throne. The Son of Man will be reigning in His kingdom, bringing every enemy into subjection before He delivers up the kingdom to the Father (1 Corinthians 15:24-26).

"…and by His appearing and His kingdom, proclaim the word." We have had the equipping of the man of God, and now we have his active engagement. Service is connected with the future, and so Paul charges him by His appearing.

Christ's appearance and His kingdom are therefore fitting and most impressive grounds of appeal. On that ground he was solemnly charging Timothy, or others like-minded and responsible, to preach the word. It is these that gave the charge immeasurable weight and awe.

The rapture is grace to all the saints equally caught up to Christ on high. The appearing will manifest the fidelity or the failure of each saint. That is why the apostle presses His appearing and His kingdom on Timothy still more closely, in preaching the Word and in all his other service.

The charge is given before God, and before the Lord Jesus Christ as Judge. His appearing and kingdom are the great limit of all responsible service… It means standing for God and proclaiming His grace with energy, while all the weight of the trials of "the last days" presses on the servant, and all the power of the enemy is set against him.

Two things will give him urgency. First, the judgment that will come on those who refuse the gospel. Second, the glorious results for those who receive it at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here, too, the appearing goes together with the Kingdom of Christ, for the appearing introduces the Kingdom.

Having stated the grounds of his appeal, the Apostle delivers his charge to serve. Men are responsible to God, so "proclaim the word; be urgent in season and out of season." Christ is going to judge, so "convict" and "rebuke" those who live in a way that calls for judgment. Christ will reward the saints at His appearing, so "encourage, with all long-suffering and doctrine."

That is why the command comes: "Preach the Word." It is not merely to go on preaching, but the Word is the word of God — the full revelation given to us of His mind. There must be more activity than ever. In season and out of season, we must seize every opportunity to set the great truths of Christianity before people.

"Be ready in season" is said to the saint. The time will come when they will not receive sound doctrine. This applies to the dealing with the saints. People often apply it to the gospel. The trouble is that they take verses without reading the context… Timothy was to keep pressing on, because soon they would not listen to him. Whether it was seasonable or not, he was to go on with it, because very soon there would be no season at all.

This was his one responsibility, whatever the state of things around. Indifference, decay, and corruption were increasing, and would go on increasing. Timothy was not to lose heart or treat this as a reason to do nothing. For this very reason he was to proclaim the Word all the more… He was not responsible for the effect of his testimony. Signs of blessing, or the lack of them, were not to sway him.

All times were alike to Timothy. His work must never stop. He must always watch for a chance to carry out his calling. No time would be wrong for a man who carried a "burden of the LORD" on his heart. Like the prophet Jeremiah, he would find the Word in his heart like a burning fire. Holding it back would wear him out, and he would not be able to keep silent (Jer. 23:38; 20:9).

Both saints and sinners may need conviction and rebuke. But this can only be by the preaching of the word, for it is only the word that produces conviction. We may seek to convict and rebuke by our own words and arguments, only to find that we irritate people and stir up resentment. Rebukes only work if they rest on the word of God. Those willing to bow to the word and accept its conviction and rebuke then hear the word of encouragement.

Whatever form the service takes, the servant must carry it out with all long-suffering and according to the truth, or "doctrine". The word will stir up opposition from the sinful nature. That opposition calls for long-suffering in the servant. The only answer that works is the doctrine, or truth, of Scripture.

The form of each verb implies prompt action… Proclaiming the word comes first. Urgent attention to the work, in season and out of season, follows the preaching. Then comes convicting — pressing the truth home. It is a healthy duty, even though it is painful to a tender spirit… Who was sufficient for these things? Timothy's sufficiency, as the apostle's, was from God. So may ours be in our little measure!

It is worth noting that the word translated "sound" comes up again and again. It is the word from which we get "hygienic," which is so often on people's lips today. It means healthful. Sound doctrine is in every sense doctrine that makes for spiritual health.

Notice, though, that this corruption begins with the hearers. It is they who "will not endure sound doctrine" (teaching). It is they who "after their own lusts … heap to themselves teachers" to satisfy a diseased and itching ear… Plain scriptural teaching only explains and applies the mind of God as contained in the Scriptures. That is not enough for such hearers. Neither are the teachers whom the Lord sends, since they prefer to "heap" up, to choose, their own.

Whether teachers fail or not, the time will come. The people, "having itching ears", will not endure sound doctrine. Following their own lusts, they will heap up teachers for themselves. This does not describe those who have never heard the truth. It describes Christendom, where people have heard the gospel but will no longer endure it. Even so, they do not give up the Christian profession, for they still heap up teachers for themselves. But those teachers must be ones who will not get in the way of their worldly desires by preaching the truth.

New, sensational things deceive even Christians — things that leave out the sound doctrine of the Word. But notice that this happens because "their own lusts" are involved: it is what the flesh desires. They become like people in love with a diet of wine and pastry, and they turn away from the healthy, solid food of the Word.

One danger for Christians at the present moment is the desire for stimulants in teaching… But stimulants are not food. Worse, in the end they create a distaste for it. They only stir the imagination, the intellect, or the nature. They never reach the conscience or the heart. The evidence of this desire is the itching ear (2 Tim. 4:3). Christ, and Christ alone, is the food of His people.

Here the time had not yet come for such widespread evil, but the Spirit of God speaks of it as close at hand: "For the time will be when they will not endure the sound teaching." It assumes people who were used to hearing the truth. But now the truth is hard to swallow, and its sound teaching cannot be endured — a frightful time for men who bear the name of the Lord. Sound teaching is always welcome to those whose desire is to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

And the result? Timothy would never be a popular preacher… There is no shortage of preachers now, but there is a shortage of those who preach the Word. It is one thing to preach about the Word, and another to preach the Word itself. There is a great danger in trying to please the popular ear. The people's ear is about as false as its voice is uncertain. Happy is the man of God who keeps preaching the Word to the end, when the crowd has turned away and listened to fables.

This is not about people who have never heard the truth. It is about Christendom, where men have heard the gospel but will no longer put up with it. Even so, they do not give up the Christian name. They still pile up teachers for themselves. But those teachers must not preach the truth and get in the way of their worldly desires.

Notice that this kind of corruption starts with the hearers. They are the ones who will not put up with sound teaching. They pile up teachers for themselves to suit their own desires and to satisfy a diseased, itching ear... Such hearers are not satisfied with plain teaching from Scripture — teaching that only explains and applies the mind of God as found in the Scriptures. Nor will they have the teachers the Lord sends. They prefer to heap up, to choose, their own... There could be only one outcome. They turn away from the truth and turn to fables, because only fables can feed their unhealthy appetites.

In the New Testament the word does not carry the meaning it often has today: a made-up incident that teaches some moral truth. It means myths, false stories — one passage calls them godless old wives' tales.

Imagination is never faith. Faith delights in knowing God and His will, and so trusts nothing but His word... Imagination is where people turn when they do not know the truth. The truth in Christ is the only perfect guard against it.

Satan's usual way is to stop the ear from hearing sound teaching first, and then to open it to take in corrupt teaching.

From the structure of the phrase, one writer of fine judgment draws this. They have already turned aside to fables, and that is what leads them to turn their ear away from the truth.

Here is the fatal result. Who can measure the dishonour done to God and His word? Who can tell what they lose in their own souls? They are not only cut off from the truth; they now have a real appetite for imaginative falsehood... The conscience is no longer governed by the sense of God's presence. Grace is unfelt, and so the constraining power of Christ's love no longer works. The holy fear of displeasing God disappears.

But the greatest fable that ever existed, or ever could exist, is still to come. That lawless one will bring it in. Christendom is preparing itself today to receive it, and it will fall under its power. The Lord will consume him with the breath of His mouth and destroy him with the brightness of His coming (2 Thess. 2:8).

Truth may look as if it has fallen in the street. The crowd may "turn away from listening to the truth" and "wander off into myths." Still he preaches the Word all the more earnestly and insistently.

A workman and leader needs more in a day of widespread and dangerous decline, when intoxicating influences were as common as they were varied: "But you, be sober in all things." The word does not mean vigilance, as the Authorized Version has it, nor a sound mind, though that sense is close. It means sobriety of judgment. Timothy was to keep clear of anything that excites or dulls the mind. Others were drifting with the crowd, away from the truth and into fables.

He is to "watch," or rather "be sober" in all things. The word used means "that sober clearness of mind that comes from being free of false influences — not muddled by the influence of what intoxicates." This is a very important word for all of us. Nothing so intoxicates the mind and muddles the perceptions as the false modern teaching we have just mentioned.

He is called to "suffer evils," or hardships, and this in the most general way. In 2 Timothy 1:8 it was to suffer evil "with the gospel"... In 2 Timothy 2:3 the thought is different. There Timothy takes his part in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Here all idea of "sharing" is left out. Readiness to endure ills in his place and service is what the apostle claims. Paul did not lay a burden on his young colleague which he himself had not long and fully borne.

The enemy watches for any chance to spoil the testimony given to Christ. Afflictions are not sent to turn us aside, but to be endured.

People often misunderstand the next call. They read it as if the apostle meant Timothy to do an evangelist's work when he did not have that gift, and so was not really an evangelist! There is not the shadow of a sound reason for such a reading. The real danger was different. The growing difficulties and troubles of the church might distract the young and sensitive worker. Demands from inside might make him give up the gift he truly had for work outside, though it was not his only gift.

Do the work of the evangelist. People ask me, "Are you an evangelist?" "I don't know," I reply. I do not know or care whether I am one or not, if only I can do the work of one. The work of the evangelist is to bring Christ before souls, and to bring souls to Christ. In a day when everything is out of order, the servant of Christ is to be a "man of all work."

The very last instruction of a public nature given by the apostle Paul was that Timothy should "do the work of an evangelist"... He was about to drop his pen forever and lay down his life for the sake of Christ and the Church. With his parting breath, and in view of all the coming ruin that would fall on the Church, this devoted servant charged his son in the faith to attend to the work of the gospel. It was no question of gift, but of heart for Christ's interests.

Lastly, Timothy is told "fully to perform" his ministry (v. 5)... It means filling his service to the full measure. Evangelizing binds the one who has the gift. Even so, it was not the whole of the ministry Timothy had received in the Lord, and he is told here to fulfil all of it.

The Lord's work is not to be half done. We are to seek to finish to perfection what He gives us to do.

The Authorized Version does not give the form correctly. "Now ready to be offered" differs in several ways from "am already being poured out," which is the exact sense of the original. This is not the first time the apostle uses the picture of a drink offering. A little earlier he wrote to his dear friends at Philippi, "But if also I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith …" (Phil. 2:17). Now he drops every condition, because his release is in view. He speaks as though the drink offering were already being poured out.

The word "offered" in Philippians 2:17 is "poured out," as the margin shows. Paul uses the same word in 2 Timothy 4:6, when his death as a martyr was close. He was pointing, of course, to the drink offerings the law required. A "fourth part of a hin of wine" had to be poured over certain sacrifices, before the Lord.

It was as though he was a drink offering, poured out on the far greater offering of his Lord. This showed his joy in the One who was the true grain offering, whose perfection and beauty shine out even in suffering and death. For the drink offering was poured over the grain offering (Ex. 29:40, 41).

The end of his devoted life, and of the persecution from the world that came with it, was so near that he could say, "I am already being poured out." He speaks of his departure as the time of his "release." Leaving this scene released him from a body that kept him from Christ. Yet he uses it as a reason for Timothy to fill up the full measure of his ministry. How often since that day has the Lord used the removal of a devoted servant to stir up those who remain to active service.

Only a special, personal word from the Lord could have enabled Paul, like Peter (2 Peter 1:14), to speak with such certainty about his own death. But the very fact that he was an exception here confirms that the general hope of believers was not to depart and be with Christ, but the Lord's coming to receive them to Himself.

So the absence of apostolic ministry — a serious thing for the position of the church — makes the duty of the man of God more urgent. Paul's absence is a reason for working out our own salvation with fear and trembling. In the same way, it is a reason for anyone doing the work of the gospel to give himself to his ministry more than ever.

We cannot be apostles, or lay the foundation of the church. That is already done. But we can build on that foundation: with the truth we have received from the apostle, with the Scriptures God has given us, and with a tireless love in the truth for souls. The foundation is not to be laid a second time.

Paul was about to be poured out as a drink offering — a precious ending to a devoted life, and a wonderful privilege. His life on earth had come to its close. Before he left the arena where his very life went up to God as a sacrifice, he could say that he had fought the good fight, finished his course, and kept the faith. It is a wonderful passage, and it should wake us up to ask whether each one of us is finishing his course as the Lord wants.

Paul speaks of his past life in three ways. As a Christian soldier, he has "fought the good fight." As a runner, he has "finished his course." As a witness for God in this world, he has "kept the faith."

As he faces death there is no hint of disappointment or regret, but fresh, living joy. He had "fought the good fight," not "a good fight." He was not drawing attention to his own fighting. He meant the fight that all Christianity fights, against evil and for the glory of God. His part in it was about to end. He had finished the course, he had kept the faith. He is not saying how well he had fought, or how well he had run, or how well he had kept the faith. God would judge those things. But there was no other good fight, no other proper course, no other true faith except Christianity. In this he had continued to the finish.

No end is more triumphant than this. He had held that hope dear before, when he said, "I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus." Now he was getting that wish… so there was a charm, with the last contest over, in saying, "I have finished." He knew he had left nothing undone, or half-done, in all his wide service.

The effort of the enemy is to rob us of the precious faith. Whatever we may lose in the battle is not really loss if we keep the faith. Paul lost everything in defence of the faith. He lost his property, reputation, religion, liberty and life. But he kept the faith… It is a great thing to say, when the battle is over, "I have kept the faith."

In these two letters he has spoken of people who failed over the faith. Some have "made shipwreck of their faith" (1 Timothy 1:19). Some "depart from the faith" (1 Timothy 4:1). Some have "denied the faith" (1 Timothy 5:8). Some have "wandered away from the faith" (1 Timothy 6:10). Some have "swerved from the faith" (1 Timothy 6:21). Others are "upsetting the faith of some" (2 Timothy 2:18). Others are "disqualified regarding the faith" (2 Timothy 3:8). But he had kept the truth God gave him. So he could say, "I have kept the faith." The devil wants us, dear friends, to give up what God has given us.

Paul was leaving the battlefield. He was putting off his armour. He had given a good account of himself, not in his own power, but in the power of God… He does not boast until the battle is over. The time to boast is not when the armour is being put on, but when it is being put off. Peter boasted too early, and so did all the disciples. Failure taught them how foolish that was.

The Apostle could say that he had fought a good fight, that he had finished his course and had kept the faith. He was at the finish, we are in the middle of the fight. Do we sleep on beds of ease? Are we taking our place in the fight of faith?

This should wake us up to ask if each one of us is finishing his course according to the Lord's mind.

These verses show the two ends of the Christian course here on earth. At the start the chief of sinners receives salvation and accepts that trustworthy saying. At the end the same man looks forward to a crown of righteousness, which he is sure is kept ready for him. And let us note it well. The One who gives salvation at the beginning as the Saviour gives the crown at the end as the righteous Judge, to all who have loved and do love His appearing.

There is a crown of righteousness promised to those who love the Lord's appearing. Why is it called a crown of righteousness? Because He will give it to those to whom it is righteous to give it: "which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me" (2 Tim. 4:8). And God "is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for His name" (Heb. 6:10).

It is a happy thing for us that we have a righteous Judge. He makes no mistakes when He gives out justice, whether to saints or to sinners. We have seen so much injustice that a truly just judge is hard to imagine. But the righteous Judge will give a crown of righteousness to Paul, and to all those who love His appearing. The setting up of that kingdom, when the glorified saints will reign with Jesus, is seen as the end of the warfare. All who are for Him, and who have fought loyally for Him while He has been away, will receive the honour and glory due to their faithfulness in that day.

His coming for us would not fit here. That would simply mean being caught up to be forever with Him. But His appearing is the day that brings faithfulness into the open and shows the work of each one. If the work stands the test of that day, each will receive reward according to his own labour.

"Love!" — do you love, can you love, that which will put a stop to everything that is pleasant in the world? It asks the heart. How this marks a spirit entirely in contrast with the spirit of the world!

It is fitting for the Christian to "love His appearing" (2 Tim. 4:8). We should love it not for the relief and reward it will bring us, but for what that Day will mean for Christ. We love that Day in advance; we delight to think of the vindication and glory it will yield to the Lord Jesus.

The crown the Apostle speaks of is not given for being a Christian, but for a faithful walk. Poor Lot will not have it, nor Demas... All are to be in glory on the ground of free grace. But Christ watches to see if we run well. He will give a reward where there has been faithfulness, and a crown of righteousness if we have loved His appearing.

"All who have loved His appearing" describes all believers, but not all will have the same crown. All alike, as subjects of grace, will be conformed to Christ in glory. But rewards will differ, and the righteous Judge will hand them out. So they will follow His judgment, which never fails... This too is of grace, for if Paul laboured more than the other apostles, it was by the grace of God.

No doubt deep solemnity filled the apostle's spirit. He was thinking of how soon he would depart, and above all of the Lord's appearing... Early in the letter Paul had expressed his great desire to see Timothy, whom he regarded with special affection. Now he urges him to be zealous in coming quickly to him, and gives the reason. A fellow-worker had deserted him. This affected his heart deeply. He therefore felt the greater wish to have Timothy with him. It would be the last opportunity.

First, Paul desires to have Timothy with him: "Do your best to come to me soon." He longed for the presence of his child in the faith. Here was someone he could open his mind and thoughts to. By now few people would attach themselves to the Lord's prisoner. Indeed, he seems to have been alone, apart from Luke. So Timothy was not to delay. He was to come before the storms of winter made travel hard, if not impossible.

At the opening of the letter, the apostle is very personal and affectionate. That style was natural in a man surrounded by painful disappointments. At such a time, if one friend did not add to that disappointment, that person was bound to fill much of the thoughts of the poor tried and broken heart. And I believe Timothy was such a person to Paul at the time of this letter.

In the service of ministry there was a power that raised a man above sin. Christ, of course, was completely free from sin. That same power raised a man above nature too, where nature was not sin, yet where giving in to it would have been a hindrance and a failure, and out of keeping with undivided service to the Lord... But when the Lord had finished His service He said, "Woman, behold, your son!"... So the apostle here returns to the thoughts and feelings of nature — I do not mean as evil, but as human — kindly ties. He opens his heart to Timothy, remembers his tears, longs to see him so that he may be filled with joy... feels his isolation too, and can speak of his cloak and books and parchments.

"Do your best to come before winter" (v. 21). In verse 9 he had said, "Do your best to come to me soon." The repeat, with the added words "before winter," is not pointless... He would also want to warn Timothy to start before winter. Bad weather could expose him to a voyage like the one Paul himself had been through. And it would give Timothy the opportunity of helping Paul, now an old man and a prisoner too. The Spirit of God stoops to think about the most ordinary things of this life... He takes no pleasure in seeing His servant shivering with cold.

Neither Timothy nor Titus held a permanent fixed local office. 2 Timothy 4:9, 21 and Titus 3:12 show this. They had a direct and limited commission, set out during the apostle's lifetime, with no word providing for the time after his death.

The apostle mentions Demas three times. In Colossians he writes, "Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you." In Philemon he calls him, along with Mark, Aristarchus and Luke, a "fellow worker." In 2 Timothy he has to say, "Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world" (age). Nothing can be sadder than this closing notice of one who had been linked with such a vessel of testimony as the apostle Paul. The final break with Paul may have been sudden, but we can be sure he had been in a backslidden state of soul long before.

This is how the Lord deals with His people. If they have grown cold, and have turned away in heart from His ways, He allows them to be tested sooner or later, so that their real state shows. This was the case with Demas. His heart had long been on the present age, and Paul's imprisonment, with the resulting "afflictions of the gospel," was simply the occasion when it showed. A time of persecution is always a time of searching.

The "age," as distinguished from the world, generally has a moral meaning. It expresses the sum of the influences at work around us in the world at any given moment. These influences are exactly what endangers God's people. So many, like Demas, give way to them and "make shipwreck" of their testimony. It is for this very reason that the apostle writes, "Do not be conformed to this age."

Note this: Paul did not say, "this present evil world," as in Galatians 1:4, but this present world. We do not accuse him of anything outrageous. We do not even suppose he stopped breaking bread, but sadly he was out of true fellowship with the Spirit of God. He settled down quietly into the course of things down here. He largely gave up the good fight of faith, and after this we hear no more of him. Demas went to Thessalonica, and then silence falls. We do not doubt that he went to heaven, but what about earth? Now is our only chance of witnessing for Christ.

It does not say that Demas had forsaken Christ. But he could not go on with such a devoted representative of Christ and keep in with the present world at the same time. He had to give up one or the other. Sadly, he forsook Paul and chose the world.

The two latter, Crescens and Titus, had gone; but they had not, like Demas, forsaken Paul. They had no doubt gone on the Lord's service. But Demas had grown cold, giving way to the influences of the age. He no longer cared to be a "partaker of the afflictions of the gospel," or to stand with God's vessel of testimony, now a poor despised prisoner. Under some excuse or other, he abandoned the apostle and went to Thessalonica. He loved this present age. What an epitaph!

Nothing is easier than to be like Demas, who forsook Paul, "having loved the present age." As a Christian, Demas would not love evil, but he loved the age and wanted to get more fully in touch with it. But whether for Demas or for us, this means going back to what the gospel called us out of. If we have any leaning that way, we may be sure the devil will make sure we get plenty of chances to return... These occasions often come with special force in middle life.

The "crown of righteousness" was laid up for the apostle. But he could say it was for "all who have loved His appearing." Do we love Christ's appearing, or this present world?

"But Tychicus I sent to Ephesus." The newer Revised Version is right here and the older Authorized Version wrong. The apostle draws a slight distinction, and "but" carries it, not "and." The others had gone on their own responsibility. The apostle sent Tychicus to Ephesus. Here again it is useless for us to guess the special purpose of his mission. We can be sure that faith in the Lord and love for the saints were the motives. But it is worth noticing the authority that sent him — an authority no one can claim now.

The Apostle had apparently sent Tychicus to Crete earlier (Titus 3:12), and now he sent him to Ephesus. Tychicus was willing to serve under the direction of Christ's servant.

A Christian from Asia who travelled with Paul on his last visit to Jerusalem. The apostle sent him from Rome to the Ephesians and to the Colossians. After Paul's release, Paul sent Tychicus to Ephesus again. Paul describes him as a beloved brother, a faithful minister and fellow-servant in the Lord. So he was just the sort of man Paul could send with confidence on these missions to 'encourage' the saints. Acts 20:4; Eph. 6:21; Col. 4:7; 2 Tim. 4:12; Titus 3:12.

The spiritual character of Tychicus clearly drew the love of the saints, and his ministry showed faithfulness to God. On top of that, his clear unity with other servants of the Lord earned him the name "fellow servant in the Lord." Let every servant of the Lord, whatever his ability or standing, aim at such a well-balanced character.

But Paul had sent Tychicus to Ephesus, and no doubt for a spiritual reason more important than keeping him at his side. If everyone in Asia, Ephesus included, had turned away from Paul (ch. 1:15), then Paul must have trusted this beloved servant to go on teaching Paul's doctrine even where everything was against him. How precious to see, too, that although these people had turned away from Paul, he would not give them up at all.

Ephesus was still written on Paul's heart, for he said to Timothy, "Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus" (2 Tim. 4:12), and he wrote this very shortly before he died for his testimony.

Ephesus certainly had its faithful few... and they would be sure to give Tychicus a warm welcome as the representative of God's devoted servant and apostle. If Paul did not have the same place in their hearts, they still had the same place in his. Sending Tychicus proves how deeply he cared about them right to the end.

The next mention is of a worker who gave Paul nothing but cause for gratitude: "Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus." Writing to the saints at Ephesus, he describes Tychicus as "a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord" (see also Col. 4:7) — no small verdict, above all when we remember that the Holy Spirit inspired it. And it was a rare mercy for the aged Apostle to have such a servant at that moment, to send to Ephesus on his behalf.

This again has stumbled the minds of men. They cannot understand an inspired apostle talking about a cloak in the middle of a divinely given pastoral charge. The reason is plain: they themselves have a taste for the things of men, and not of God. Nothing shows God more than His ability to combine what is eternal with care for the smallest things of this life.

The cloak we wear and the books we read are not matters of indifference to Him. In our folly we may think such things beneath His notice. Because we think that way, these very things — the clothes we wear, the books we read — often become our greatest snares.

The winter winds whistled through the window-bars of his prison cell. The damp and cold made his aged body shiver and ache as he lay bound with a chain. Yet not one Christian among the many living in Rome came to him in his need, or brought him a garment to protect his aching limbs. He had a cloak, just one, but it was nearly a thousand miles away.

A cloak is not to be thrown away, and I have no doubt it was as cold in a Roman prison then as it is cold in Rome now in winter. The man of God can ask for the useful covering.

Here we learn the Christian liberty the apostle used about these outward things of body and mind. He preferred to have a cloak brought rather than buy another. He asked for his books there, which had their interest or use for him, even though he was expecting death and did not know how soon. He would not speak of the Scriptures that way.

"The books" too do not appear, from the general expression, to have been the Scriptures... He would not, we may be well assured, leave behind on his journeys a single roll he had of the Scriptures; but he neither burned nor despised other books.

These naturally imply material of the most valuable and lasting kind, not yet written on. The apostle wanted them, knowing that his outward ministry was closing... What could have been more on his mind than the wish to have his letters copied with care, under his own eye, and for lasting use?

Many have thought that the "parchments" may include some of the inspired letters. This is very likely, and the care taken should be a lesson to us in any work that involves writing.

He reports that the "Irish Clergyman" replied at once that he himself would have lost much, for it was only that verse which kept him from destroying his little library. Those who knew the Irish Clergyman's "little library" in later years — how many languages and subjects it covered — found the incident interesting.

Paul had handed Alexander over to Satan because of his blasphemy. That put him outside the fellowship of the saints, in the hope that he would judge himself (1 Tim. 1:20). But clearly there had been no recovery. The opposite was true: he did Paul much evil… The meaning of Alexander's name seems most significant: "man defender." It will be of no use to defend man in the flesh against the Living God. Paul's doctrine had exposed man in the flesh and brought him to nothing, while exalting the person of Christ.

He is an active personal enemy of the Apostle. Personal hostility drove him, so it did not matter what Paul said — Alexander opposed his words. Such people existed in the Apostle's day, and sadly there are still such people in the Christian profession. They resist what a man says, not because it is wrong, but because they are hostile to the person who speaks. The Lord's servant does not repay such a person evil for evil, or insult for insult. He does not say, "I will try to deal with him according to his works." He commits the whole matter to the Lord, and so he can say, "The Lord will render to him according to his works."

One cannot help feeling that the text with the highest manuscript authority is a great relief to the spirit: "the Lord will render to him according to his works." It is easy to see how the common text turned this verb into a wish… On the other hand, that the Lord will render to him according to his works is a certain truth which every Christian conscience must feel.

There is only one place in the New Testament where it looks like a Christian is asking for punishment on an enemy: 2 Timothy 4:14. But it should read, "The Lord will reward him according to his works." Paul did not desire Alexander's punishment, but he knew enough of God's ways to know He would deal with him.

Avoiding all open conflict as useless, Nehemiah commits the matter to God, like Paul… It would be well for us to pay special attention to these examples. There are many forms of evil which we cannot attack openly without damage to ourselves and to others. There are many evil-workers in the church of God whom we must leave alone. To attack them would only serve the cause of the enemy. Our resource in such circumstances is to cry to God against them.

Alexander is an enemy of the truth. There is nothing to say but, "The Lord reward him according to his works!" The Roman converts were afraid to stand by the champion for the truth, and at his first defence they left him standing alone… "May it not be charged against them!" says the apostle — very different from what he had said in the other case. It is an important thing to distinguish between those who oppose the truth and those who are afraid to stand for it; and this is what Paul does in this case.

In his day he had to meet those who did him "great harm." Yet, trusting in the Lord, he could say, "The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom" (2 Tim. 4:14, 18).

Alexander — of Ephesus, we believe — clearly had something to do with his arrest. He was either one of his accusers, or at least a witness against him. He writes to Timothy: "Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm." Ten years before this, he had stood forward as the open opponent of the apostle in Ephesus (Acts 19). He may now have taken his revenge by reporting the apostle to the Roman authorities. The charge to Timothy, "Beware of him yourself," seems to show this was the same Alexander of Ephesus.

Alexander is referred to, not as a teacher of error, as in the case of Hymenaeus, nor as loving this present world like Demas. He is instead an active personal enemy of the Apostle. Personal hatred drove him, so it did not matter what Paul said — Alexander opposed his words. Such people existed in the Apostle's day. Sadly, they are still found among those who claim the Christian name. They resist what is said, not because it is wrong, but because they hate the person who speaks.

Against Alexander, Timothy also was to stand on his guard. It is clear, therefore, that he was an adversary still bent on evil to the saints and on opposition to the work. Timothy's gentle character might draw him into a mistaken kindness, when caution was urgently needed. The apostle gives the reason: "he strongly opposed our message." More than the apostle had warned or pleaded with this wrongdoer — perhaps Timothy himself among them.

He also uses the moment to warn Timothy about the true character of this adversary: "he strongly opposed our message." Alexander may have been a successful debater, and that may have won him the applause of his hearers. But he was a tool of Satan to his own destruction, unless he later repented.

Vindictiveness refused. We are to see that none render evil for evil. There is the ever present danger of meeting flesh with flesh. We may have to be silent when facing malice, and even avoid the one who acts in malice, but in any case we are not to render evil for evil.

This points to Paul's trial — to what we would call his first hearing. The words are better translated "my first defence." Not one person was found to go with him to the court. All "forsook" him, and that word is the same one used of Demas. So they, like him, had given in to the power of the enemy. But if fear was what moved them, grace was still at work in Paul's heart. It lifted him above their unfaithfulness and his own desertion, and made him able to pray that the sin would not be charged against them.

Few can measure how painful and humiliating this was to the apostle, because so few come anywhere near him in faith or in love. No one on earth could feel as he felt what such failure was to the Lord Himself. That feeling gave immense weight to his prayer, "May it not be charged against them!"

That same lone prisoner stood before the emperor Nero — a defenceless captive, worn down by age and by a lifetime of suffering. He stood in the very jaws of the lion and preached the gospel of God without fear, but no one stood with him. His friends abandoned him. Like frightened hares they ran for safety when his life was in danger. He felt it, and felt it deeply — more for their sake than for his own.

The apostle found in his day, as many have found since, that the path narrows as we near the goal. So, on trial before the powers of this world, he had to say that no one stood with him and all deserted him. This treatment looks heartless and cowardly, but it stirs no resentment in Paul's heart. Instead it draws out his prayer that it may not be charged against them.

How closely Paul had to follow in the steps of his Master! And how clearly the same Spirit led him, whatever the difference in degree of power! We read that when the Lord allowed Himself to be arrested, "Then all the disciples left him and fled" (Matt. 26:56). And before His death He prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). A blessed likeness! But how few are ready for the suffering that such a privilege brings!

Not one stayed by him! Peter tells us that "it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God," 1 Peter 4:17. I name these on the authority of the word of God. They show that even then, at the very beginning, something was going on in the open. The Spirit of God could see it and point to it as the ground of final judgment. It was already visible in the church of God.

Some believers prefer the simple, reliable word of Scripture to the many confusing creeds of fallible people, propped up as those creeds are by custom, tradition, or convenience. Such a believer must expect the isolation that always goes with faithfulness in a time of decline. The church has certainly not improved since everyone deserted no less a man than the apostle Paul, leaving him to stand alone at his first defence in Rome. Still, the Lord stood with him (2 Tim. 4:16-17). He will do the same for every true-hearted follower, and give enough grace for the heaviest burden anyone may have to carry for His sake.

The apostle was in these circumstances for the truth's sake. They only served to bring out fully what a reserve he had in the Lord Himself... Notice the beautiful moral order of these words — not "strengthened me and stood by me," but "stood by me and strengthened me." This order conveys a reality that is very blessed. It puts first, and in the foreground, the Lord's company and presence with His faithful servant at the moment when all deserted him.

May we not say this? It is exactly when someone in the Lord's service, and for His name, has to feel the loneliness of the path of a faithful witness that the Lord comes and reveals Himself in a special way. So at this moment of trial, the Lord stood by Paul and strengthened him — strengthened him inwardly. The enemy's effort became an opportunity to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles who filled the court.

If all others fail and forsake us, the Lord's words will always remain true: "I will never leave you nor forsake you"... But when the Lord gives power, it is not power to crush our enemies. It is not power to get ourselves out of hard circumstances. It is spiritual power to bear witness for Him in front of His enemies... From the records of Paul's preaching we know what that proclamation was: the forgiveness of sins "through this Man" — Christ Jesus, the risen Man in the glory (Acts 13:38)... Paul was given power to proclaim Christ, and the Lord Himself used His power to deliver His servant from the immediate danger. So he can say, not "I rescued myself," but "I was rescued from the lion's mouth."

Let us note this: Paul says nothing about being on the defensive on this occasion. In fact he boldly took the positive action of fully preaching the truth of Christ before the great Gentile court. Such is the power given as a result of any real sense of the Lord's standing with the servant.

He did not use every ounce of his wit and strain every nerve to prove his own innocence. Instead he concentrated on giving the fullest and plainest testimony to the gospel. His trial became the occasion in which "the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it." Paul eagerly seized the chance to set the gospel fully before the most impressive gathering on earth at that time. His words then stood on record in the official report of the trial, open to any and every Gentile.

"So I was rescued from the lion's mouth." Does this refer to the Emperor in particular, or to his representative in a more general way? People say they cannot determine. The phrase clearly means rescued from the most immediate or overwhelming danger.

God delivered Daniel from the mouth of the lion "because he believed in his God." Paul, too, was delivered, though perhaps in another sense. But we do know that he was afterwards put to death by Caesar's executioners. So let us have no fears for our own life. Our time here is certain until our work is done and our testimony for Christ is complete.

So, in this day, ruin has come in among the people of God. Satan has so triumphed that Paul is in prison, the saints have deserted him, and evil is increasing. The Apostle feels all the failure deeply. Yet one thing holds him up and lifts him above it all: he realises that the Lord Jesus is in the supreme place of power, above every influence of Satan. The Lord in glory is his resource.

But the apostle widens his view as he looks ahead. "The Lord will deliver me from every evil work" — not necessarily out of a lion's mouth another day, but from all real evil — and He "will preserve for His heavenly kingdom." Earth might bring him still more sorrow, and human persecution to the very worst. For the apostle the question was not whether his body would be saved, but whether he would be preserved for the Lord's heavenly kingdom.

Paul said, "The Lord will deliver me from every evil work." Yet this deliverance did not mean he would escape suffering. In fact, the evil work of Satan led to Paul's execution in prison — and that was the very means of his deliverance.

As the Psalmist can say, "The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life" (Psalm 121:7). The heavenly kingdom may indeed be reached through a martyr's death, but the soul will be preserved through every evil.

The meek who are to inherit the earth will have part with the Lord in His earthly kingdom. But Paul, and every other believer of the Christian period, will have part in Christ's heavenly kingdom. In the millennial day, everything in heaven and on earth will come under Christ's rule. He will have His servants both in heaven and on earth.

The Lord guaranteed that He would preserve him for His heavenly kingdom. That is, He would keep him until he departed to be with Christ in heaven, and the time of his departure was at hand. That would happen before the Lord returned for His saints, and so before He appeared with His saints to set up His kingdom on the earth. This will explain the term "heavenly kingdom."

The Roman Emperor, the church of God, and His servant Paul are all under review here. All of them work for the "preservation" of His poor imprisoned servant. Through all, come what may, Paul will be preserved, and so will Timothy, and so will all who are like-minded. Even a cruel death may come, but that does not touch the preservation of the faithful servant.

His and our every prayer may well end in a continual Hallelujah.

Do we have such confidence in the love of the Father and of Christ? With enemies, dangers and desertion around us, can we still say, "Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge"?

"Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus." The first two were early companions who stayed faithful to the end. With them he links the household of Onesiphorus, whom he mentioned at the close of the first chapter of this letter. The apostle felt deeply how Onesiphorus linked himself with his circumstances as a prisoner. Onesiphorus himself was no longer in Rome, and perhaps not at Ephesus either, his usual home… God prospers earnest love for Christ's sake.

He closes the letter with a few more personal notes. Remember that the apostle "stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade" (Acts 18:2-3). And he calls them elsewhere "my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks" (Rom. 16:3-4).

Aquila and Priscilla had settled in Corinth… After Paul's ministry there ended they went to Ephesus. They were still there when 1 Corinthians was written. But in Romans 16:3 Paul greets them at Rome, so they had travelled back… 2 Timothy 4:19 tells us that once more they were back in Ephesus, where Timothy was living. "Greet Prisca" (a shortened form of Priscilla) "and Aquila." They were indeed strangers and pilgrims, but blessed to know that the Lord directed their wanderings. Priscilla is mostly named before Aquila. From this we may learn that she, like other notable women of those days, "labored for the Gospel."

Apollos had the natural gift of eloquence — he was a master of words. By diligent study he had become "mighty in the Scriptures." Yet when he came to Ephesus he was not well informed about God's intervention in Christ… Aquila and Priscilla heard him and at once saw what he lacked. So they did the delightful service of showing him hospitality, to teach him more fully what had happened through Christ. God used these saints, who had no particular public gift, to launch a very gifted vessel on his career of service. From Ephesus he went to Corinth. There he convinced many Jews about Christ, and he helped the believers much as well. How much of the reward for his effective service will go to the credit of Aquila and Priscilla, who can say?

The apostle writes: "May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus" (2 Tim. 1:16), and again he greets that same household here. The whole household is joined to the loyalty of its head. The whole household is commended in a special way to the mercy of the Lord, because Onesiphorus had a loyal and loving heart… The whole household shared the rejection along with its head. This is as it should be. May it be so in our households!

He does no great public work. But he often refreshed the apostle, and he was not ashamed to stand with a man in prison for Christ's sake. In Rome he sought Paul out. That was no doubt hard in so large a city, where prisons would be more than a few. Anyone could excuse himself from such a task as unnecessary. But the apostle, and certainly God too, valued the faith that kept going until it found Paul. What proof that things which may look small in our eyes are not really small in God's estimate!

There was no compulsion in regulating the labours of his fellow-ministers, even by an apostle. They were servants of the Lord. No one would have urged this more earnestly than Paul, and no one would have drawn back more than he did from setting up a controlling authority between the Lord and His servants. There were urgent calls elsewhere, no doubt; but Erastus stayed at Corinth. He was probably the man who had once been treasurer of the city.

Verse 20 leads one to think that Paul was released from custody after his trial. His first voyage to Rome took place under the circumstances recorded in Acts 27 and 28, and he had no chance then to leave Trophimus at Miletus. He left him there sick, which shows that it is not always God's way to heal sick believers directly, as some claim.

We also learn here that the apostles used the miraculous power given to them in the Lord's service. They did not use it for their private interests, or as their personal affection might suggest. Paul had left Trophimus sick at Miletus.

Apparently the miraculous power of healing which, in the course of his testimony, had been so strikingly used by the Apostle, was never used for the relief of a brother or a friend. As one has said, "Miracles as a rule were signs for unbelievers, not a means of cure for the household of faith."

Here again the apostle looked only to the Lord. His glory was the only motive, whether for working miracles or for holding back. So in the earlier letter the apostle told Timothy to stop drinking only water. He was to use a little wine for his stomach and his frequent illnesses. Any Christian friend might give that advice today, though without the Spirit's inspiration. This remains for us now in the written word. There was certainly no miracle in Timothy's case, any more than in Trophimus' case.

Paul, for example, with all his mighty powers of healing, says, "I left Trophimus, who was ill, at Miletus." God had His own purpose in Trophimus' suffering, and a needless miracle might have spoiled that purpose. And on Paul's part, God did not give him powers of miracles to use at random, or at his own will, but to use in the service of his Master.

We see that whatever miraculous power was in the Church, it was not used to make every believer comfortable in this life. Nor did it always enable him to bring comfort to others. The apostle felt the absence of Trophimus, no doubt. But he has not a word of reproof for him, and not a thought of complaint about it.

"Do your best to come before winter" (v. 21). In verse 9 he had said, "Do your best to come to me soon." The repetition, with the defining words "before winter," is surely not pointless. He had told Timothy in verse 13 to bring the cloak left at Troas with Carpus. But he would also warn Timothy to start before wintry weather exposed him to a voyage like the one Paul himself had known (Acts 27). And he would give him the chance of helping Paul the aged, now a prisoner as well.

He longed for the presence of his child in the faith. He wanted someone to whom he could open his mind and thoughts freely, now that few would attach themselves to the Lord's prisoner. In fact he seems to have been alone, apart from Luke (v. 11). So Timothy was not to delay, but to come before the storms of winter made travelling hard, if not impossible.

The Spirit of God is willing to think about the most ordinary things of this life. The body is for the Lord, not only the soul; and the Lord is for the body (1 Cor. 6:13). So it is not only moral debasement that should be far from the believer, but also emptiness and worldliness. On the other hand, the Lord stoops to think of what might give physical comfort. He takes no pleasure in His servant shivering with cold.

No detail that concerns His children is too small for our God and Father to consider. Paul has already mentioned the cloak and the books; now he thinks of the season. Timothy is to try to come before winter would add to the hardships of his journey.

Paul names three brothers and a sister as sending greetings to Timothy, along with "all the brothers." This proves not only the love and esteem people had for Timothy, but the apostle's care to promote love among the saints.

The apostle was careful to promote love, and he sends greetings from several by name — not only men, but a woman, as well as from the brothers generally. A woman was put first, with good reason, in verse 19; and a woman is put last, with no less wisdom, among those named in verse 21.

A poet named Martial mentions a lady called Claudia, born of British parents, who lived at Rome. The apostle Paul also speaks of a Claudia in his second letter to Timothy. These two are supposed to be the same person. What adds to the likelihood is that the same poet mentions a Pudens alongside Claudia, and Paul gives that name too.

As for those whose greetings appear in verse 21, their names were too common at the time to build anything personal on them. One thing is certain: they were Christians. The people Martial writes about were pagans who, as far as we know, never submitted to the righteousness of God. Martial came to Rome as a young man only about two years before the apostle's death. His poems came later, most of them long after, when his Pudens and Linus and Claudia were still pagans. It is natural that some should claim the Linus mentioned here as bishop of Rome in the days of the apostles... The only thing certain, once we leave Scripture, is how uncertain human tradition is.

The testimony of the Lord not only has its seemingly prosperous times; sometimes the winter winds blow and the storms seem to rage around it. Look at Paul in 2 Timothy. He had to say, "All who are in Asia turned away from me." They could not stand the winter-time. How can we be Christians all the year round? By holding fast to the Lord. He is just as sufficient for the winter-time as for the summer-time.

Paul's last recorded prayer (written in 2 Timothy 4:22) is, "The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit," a fitting and touching close to a moving letter.

The last words of any servant of God must carry a feeling of deep solemnity. That is even more true when we think of them as written or spoken at the close of their service here. They are the fruit of long and varied experience, and they carry the solemn judgment of everything that years of dealing with God had given. How much greater is their power when they come to us as words of inspiration given by the Spirit of God. These are the last words of Paul to Timothy, his own son in the faith.

Paul closes this letter to Timothy in a beautiful way. His desire is that the Lord Jesus Christ may be with his spirit. It has been said that we may be right in doctrine and principle, and even in outward conduct, and yet be wrong in spirit. If the Lord Jesus is with us in spirit we shall show, in our words and ways, the very spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord.

The closing expression is unusual, "The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit," for it was his spirit that needed strengthening, not his soul. Finally, "Grace be with you" — it is this alone that would lift him above the circumstances that tried him.

The letter then closes with the beautiful benediction, "The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you." What higher blessing could the apostle desire for his beloved Timothy? The presence of Him who is the Lord Jesus Christ — all that He is as expressed in these names — to be with Timothy's spirit, and also grace. May this same blessing be the portion of the beloved reader!

But the prayer is that the Lord be "with your spirit." That was the apostle's last inspired desire for Timothy. And "grace be with you" was for those in general who were with Timothy... It is the expression of a heart that could feel fervently for all, yet knew how to make a difference.

Does not the renewed heart long for a sense of the Lord's presence? And did not the Lord Himself answer that longing by His promise before He left: "I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20)? And if that assurance is said to have a special collective application, Paul's wish for Timothy is undoubtedly individual: "The Lord [Jesus Christ] be with your spirit" (2 Timothy 4:22). May we then, individually and together, walk with Him!

The apostle's wish for Timothy, "The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit," is very blessed. May it be so for us too, that there may be more simple and full communion with our blessed Lord, as we discern His way in the present evil time.