Thou therefore, my child, be strong in the grace which [is] in Christ Jesus.
Paul is a prisoner, deserted by those in Asia, and his first word to his younger fellow worker is an encouragement, not a warning. Why does a crisis call for grace and not sharpness, and where does a timid man find the strength to obey?
The verse opens with "You then" — a word that points back to the collapse just described. One commentator notes how surprising Paul's counsel is at such a moment:
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.
"Be strengthened" is not a call to find courage in yourself. Paul points Timothy to a strength that comes from outside him:
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.
Timothy was timid by nature — just the person you would expect to be let off a hard task. Instead Paul tells him where the supply is:
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.
Older translations read "my strength is made perfect in weakness."
The verse puts the grace in a person, not in the situation. One writer draws out the courage that follows:
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.
Another writer describes what kind of grace this is:
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.
Being strong in grace shapes how a person treats others. Hitting back costs far less.
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.
The strength has a purpose. It prepares Timothy to pass the truth on to others, which is what verse 2 tells him to do.
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 day — The command comes at the lowest point: Paul in prison, friends gone, the church in ruin. Decline is the setting for this verse, not an excuse from it.
- The choice — Where people expect severity, God's counsel is grace. The worse things get, the more we need grace — and that is just when we are most tempted to drop it.
- The source — You draw this strength; you do not produce it. It sits "in Christ Jesus" — unchanged when everything else changes, and open to the weakest.
- The character — Grace is not softness. A hard, demanding spirit comes naturally. Being gracious takes spiritual strength and a mind occupied with Christ.
- The outflow — Strengthened like this, Timothy can hand the truth on to faithful men. That is delicate work, and only His grace makes it possible.
And the things thou hast heard of me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, such as shall be competent to instruct others also.
Error was already spreading when Paul wrote, and he named no successors to the apostles. His answer is a chain: Timothy passes on what he heard from Paul to men who can pass it on again.
The phrase describes how Paul taught. He taught in the open, and the people who listened had a part to play.
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.
Paul names one qualification for the men who receive the truth. It is not the one institutions usually look for.
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."
Many read this verse as setting up a line of ordained successors. The commentators here see something much simpler.
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.
Paul's wording here also differs from his first letter to Timothy.
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.
Error was already spreading, and Paul made this instruction his defence against it.
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.
Some believers assume they can go straight to Scripture alone and need nobody else. Commentators point to God's usual way of working.
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.
This command is not just for well-known teachers. Ordinary believers carry it out in everyday conversation.
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.
- Heard — Timothy learned the truth in the open, in front of many who could confirm it. Those witnesses were not inspired, but they could vouch for the message.
- Held — faithfulness marks the men who carry it, not education or position. That is how God's truth stays alive in the world.
- Handed on — Paul hands over teaching, not authority or ordination. This second letter drops the talk of elders and asks only for faithful men.
- Guarded — taught believers stand like sea walls against advancing error. Scripture gives no hint of a human authority to settle the truth for us.
- Repeated — "others also" makes every learner a future teacher. God's usual way keeps us dependent on one another: we receive, then we share what we learn of Christ.