But foolish and senseless questionings avoid, knowing that they beget contentions.
Paul has just told Timothy to flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness with others who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Now he adds a warning: some questions deserve no answer at all, because of what they produce.
Older translations read "foolish and unlearned questions." But "unlearned" here is not about a lack of education. The word describes the state of a person's will.
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 command is not a ban on asking. It sorts the sincere enquirer from the one using a question as a weapon.
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 Greek verb turns up elsewhere in these letters. It covers people as well as topics, and it never means formal exclusion from the church.
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.
So the instruction is personal and practical. Timothy is to step around the subject, not put anyone out of the church.
This verse is not an isolated rule. The same call comes back again and again through the letter, in different words.
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).
The next verse says the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome. That is not because truth does not matter. It is because a man can be right and still wreck his case by the way he defends it.
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."
The danger is not limited to silly questions. A good question can do the same damage.
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.
- Source — the questions are "undisciplined." They come from a mind that will not submit to God.
- Fruit — such questions can only end in quarrels, so the argument is over before it starts.
- Command — "avoid" means step around it; it is not a call to exclude anyone from the church.
- Test — help the honest questioner; the man who asks in order to argue against the truth deserves no answer.
- Spirit — a servant can be right and still lose by quarrelling; his job is to show his Master's gentleness, patience and meekness, and to leave the result with God.
And a bondman of [the] Lord ought not to contend, but be gentle towards all; apt to teach; forbearing;
Paul has just warned Timothy to avoid foolish arguments, because they only breed quarrels. This verse gives the other side: how a servant of God holds the truth firmly without fighting for it.
The title Paul uses is itself the argument. A servant carries someone else's message, so his manner must not contradict the One who sent him.
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 ban is narrower than it looks. Older translations read "strive" here, and the force of that word decides what is forbidden.
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.
Kindness "to everyone" leaves out no one — not even the person we would most like to leave out.
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?
Gentleness also costs something: the urge to press our opinions and to defend ourselves.
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 Greek word behind "able to teach" raises a question: is this a gift only some believers have?
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.
Teaching meets resistance among believers, and that calls for more than knowledge.
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.
Older translations end this verse with the word "patient." That word can be put more exactly.
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.
Every trait listed here was first lived out by the Lord Himself.
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).
And the goal is never to be declared the winner.
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.
- Servant — He is only a servant, not the Master; his manner must never misrepresent the Lord he stands for.
- Not quarrelling — The ban is on the contentious spirit, not on holding the truth. He stands on God's revealed truth instead of dropping into disputes.
- Gentle to all — No one is left out. The question is not how disagreeable people are, but whether we present Christ as we should. Gentleness is the one thing opposition cannot defeat.
- Able to teach — Not a special gift, but a practical fitness to pass on the truth he has. It rests on love for the saints and faith in the Lord.
- Bearing evil — He takes wrong instead of returning it. His aim is not to be proved right, but to see the opposer freed from the devil's snare.
in meekness setting right those who oppose, if God perhaps may sometime give them repentance to acknowledgment of [the] truth,
The verse gives the Lord's servant a task he cannot finish by argument. He must correct those who oppose him. But only God can grant the outcome: repentance and a knowledge of the truth. So the question is not how to win, but how to behave while leaving the result with God.
Two instincts pull at a person when someone contradicts him. One commentator marks the difference by asking what the correcting is for. He works from an older wording of the verse: "in meekness".
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.
Older translations read "those who oppose themselves". Some take that to point back at the opponent: the harm he does lands on his own head. It also leaves the servant no room to make the exchange about himself.
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.
Meekness is hard to keep when someone fights you. One thing steadies it: what the servant expects of the opponent's future.
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.
Many treat repentance as a change of opinion. One writer digs deeper, down to who has the last word inside a person.
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.
If repentance is that deep a turn, no skill in the servant can produce it. One writer states the limit plainly, and says what is left for us to do.
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.
The word "perhaps" in the verse does not mean the case is hopeless. It marks an outcome that is possible and worth wanting. And the way to it — meekness — was Christ's own path.
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.
The goal is not that the opponent gives in on a point in a debate. The Greek word behind "knowledge of the truth" here is a compound one, and one writer explains what that adds.
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.
- Given, not gained. Repentance is God's to grant; the servant instructs, but has no power to put anyone right.
- Given deeply. It is a moral revolution, not a change of opinion — the soul now lets God's word judge it instead of judging God's word.
- Given through meekness. Gentleness is the one approach that may disarm an opponent, and it was Christ's own path.
- Given for their sake, not ours. The aim is to recover the opponent, not to prove the servant right. Those who oppose are harming themselves.
- Given a future. Today's enemy may be tomorrow's friend, so the servant keeps teaching and keeps counting on God.