Book of 2 Timothy - Bible Survey

The second epistle to Timothy has a very peculiar character. It is the expression of his heart, who outside Palestine had, under God, founded and built the assembly of God on earth, and it was written in sight of its failure, and its departure from the principles on which he had established it. God remained faithful; His foundation was sure and immovable; but the work committed into the hands of men was already enfeebled and decaying. The consciousness of this state of things, which moreover betrayed itself in the way in which the apostle himself was then forsaken, oppressed his heart; and he pours it out into the bosom of his faithful Timothy. By this means the Spirit instructs us in the solemn truth, that the church has not kept its first estate, and sets before us the ways of safety for those who seek God, and desire to please Him, in such a state of things as this.

Though about to depart, and looking forward with confidence to the crown of righteousness in the day of the Lord, the Apostle could not but feel deeply the failure of that which under God he had been used to establish on earth. All this sorrow of heart he pours into the ear of his beloved child in the faith. This unburdening of the heart of the Apostle to Timothy is used by the Spirit of God, on the one hand to forewarn believers of the progressive character of the corruption of Christendom throughout the dispensation, and on the other hand to set before us the greatness of our resources in God, in Christ and in the Scriptures, in order that we may be sustained in the midst of the evil and walk according to the mind of God in difficult times.

In the Second Epistle to Timothy all is changed. The church, as the house of God, is no longer seen as maintained in order according to God, but as having fallen into disorder through the failure of man. In view of this failure and disorder the Apostle Paul writes to Timothy to encourage, instruct and exhort him in a day of ruin, and, further, to warn him that the evil would continue and increase throughout the dispensation, manifesting itself in its worst forms in the last days.

The importance of the Second Epistle of Paul to Timothy lies in the fact that it was written in a day when the ruin of the Church in responsibility had already commenced. This early failure has led to the difficult times of these last days marked by the corruption of the Christian profession. The Epistle instructs us in the mind of the Lord for believers in the midst of the ruin and corruption.

It is generally accepted among intelligent Christians that Second Timothy speaks of the days of failure of the corporate testimony given to the saints, but it also sets before us the path we are to pursue in such days. However great the failure of men, God's will and purpose are secure in "the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus," and on this promise we can always count.

In 2 Timothy 1 we are reminded of the unfeigned faith that marked Timothy, his mother and his grandmother; a faith in God which turns instinctively towards Him, in which there was no slavish fear, but which had the spirit of power, of love, and of wise discretion. This faith is necessary if we are to walk, amidst the failure, well pleasing to God.

The second Epistle to Timothy assumes a deeper character because of the grave disorder of a general kind which was before the eyes of the Holy Spirit. The regular means would not meet that which already and most seriously disclosed departure from God. Hence in the address it is no longer "according to command …", but "by God's will according to promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus", anticipating in measure that truth on which the apostle John falls back for the last time. Individual fidelity is the more required, yet there should be in no way giving up but maintaining the divine association of saints.

Order in the assembly, moral weight and worth in all, especially in those who govern or administer publicly, was urged in the First Epistle with the seriousness proper to the theme. Here the soon-departing apostle, whilst longing for Timothy's presence (2 Tim. 1:4; 2 Tim. 4:9, 11, 13, 21), lays on the heart of his beloved fellow-labourer his final injunctions and personal call in view of deep and growing disorder. Such a ruin-state however (and it is incomparably worse now), he implies, would only give the better occasion to make manifest those who abide true to Christ and cleave to His grace in the midst of the prevailing generally-fatal declension which he could not but describe. It would furnish no doubt every facility for the flesh and the world in possession of the Lord's name; but therefore all the more energy, endurance, and courage would be due to the Lord from the devoted and godly.

The opening chapter contains the loving greeting of the apostle, and exhortations to faithfulness, especially to hold fast the form of sound words which Timothy had heard from Paul. Then follow other exhortations to be strong, to endure hardness, to strive lawfully, to labor, to consider and to remember. It is the conflict which the true servant has in the world, in which he is to be as a good soldier of Jesus. This is followed by a description of the departure from the faith, and the path the believer is to follow. In the third chapter the last days are prominently brought into view by the Spirit of God, and all that these days mean in the manifestation of evil. The fourth chapter contains the final words of the apostle; faithful to the end, and the Lord's faithfulness to him.

I. PAUL'S PERSONAL WORD TO TIMOTHY (1) II. FAITH'S CONFLICT AND THE BELIEVER'S PATH (2) III. THE LAST DAYS AND THEIR PERILS (3) IV. THE LAST WORDS OF THE APOSTLE (4)

This is the last of all Paul's writings, and as his very life was about to be poured out in martyrdom for Christ's sake, so he pours out his heart to his beloved child Timothy in a way we could not expect in any but a personal epistle. There is a simplicity and reality here that is beautiful. For while he keenly felt such sorrows as having all in Asia turn away from him (ch. 1:15), others by false doctrine overthrowing the faith of some (ch. 2:17, 18), and even those closer forsaking him when he stood before the Roman Emperor (ch. 4:10, 16); yet the calm triumph of faith shines out radiantly in all this epistle, as the imprisoned apostle seeks with a full heart to encourage his younger fellow laborer, who had evidently allowed himself to become discouraged because of the pressure of such things.

The second phase of the campaign is in the Second Epistle. In the interval the enemy had wrought with awful success, perverting, corrupting, ensnaring, and discouraging — till everything but the last position had gone. The mass is viewed as having been overthrown — “All they which are in Asia be turned away from me.” In chapter 1 the gospel is suffering evil and Paul a prisoner as to his circumstances, though still able to address his subaltern, Timothy. Not a prisoner as to the testimony, not captured by the enemy as failing to maintain the honour of Christ’s name or the truth of Christianity, but encouraging others to stand as standing himself, though circumscribed in his movements. In the second chapter we must take nothing for granted. Everything and everybody has to be tested; no one may be consorted with but him who is true to Christ. In the third chapter no hope is entertained of general recovery. “Evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived”; and the call is for “faithful men.” For men! Nothing can equal the fine way in which the grand old leader and veteran calls upon his junior to rally to the flag, to put spirit into his fighting, to stir up the gift that is in him, and not to be ashamed. God has not given us the spirit of cowardice, but of power amidst the fearful weakness, of love amidst the general decline thereof, and of a sound mind — healthy calculated to throw out the unspiritual bacteria of unsound doctrine. But in spite of the fact that nothing is going to get better but rather worse, this old warrior knows no defeat. The fourth chapter is to me like the last rally. Everything is to be stood for — all the truth of the Church in its every aspect, all the gospel, all the character of God — and this right on to the end. But what is the end? Not capture, not defeat, not a collapse of the testimony, not the hoisting of the white flag, but will be not annihilation, but triumph through the sudden appearing of their Messiah — dashing in pieces the enemy, shattering to atoms every vestige of his power, and completely reversing the whole state of things in an instant — so the end for us who stand by the flag, who remain true to Christ and to His interest, shall not be annihilation and loss, but His glory-shout, His coming, His absolute and eternal triumph over the whole of Satan’s power. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!