But profane, vain babblings shun, for they will advance to greater impiety,
Paul has just told Timothy to handle the word of truth well. Now he names the opposite activity and tells him to keep away from it. The warning comes with its own reason: this talk does not stay still. It moves, and it moves one way only.
The ESV calls this "irreverent babble." Older translations say "profane and vain babblings," and each of those words does its own job. One names an attitude to holy things. The other names the content:
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.
The word also fits a familiar habit today — religious talk that leaves God out:
"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.
The verse ties this talk to ungodliness. One writer shows how the first produces the second:
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.
Paul tells Timothy to avoid this talk, not to refute it. The problem lies deeper than the ideas themselves:
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.
Gifted people feel this pull most. The damage runs two ways — to the debater, and to those watching him:
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.
Shunning is not silence. Standing for the truth is still a duty. What Paul rules out is the slide from truth into arguments about words:
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.
This is not a one-off instruction. The same letter gives the same command again and again, in different words:
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
- Empty — the talk is "profane" because it treats sacred things as common. It is "vain" because its arguments have nothing behind them.
- Moving — empty talk never stays put. Loose doctrine loosens conduct, so profane talk ends in an ungodly walk.
- Useless — where there is no fear of God, debate only flatters the talker. Such people need repentance, not better arguments.
- Costly — you may win the argument with an empty dreamer and still come away damaged. Onlookers soak up the dreariness too.
- Replaced — the cure is not silence but substance. State the truth; it builds up speaker and hearer alike. Then follow the letter's steady call — shun, depart, flee, avoid, turn away.
and their word will spread as a gangrene; of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.