They must expect to be despised, and that their religion will stand in the way of their preferment; those who will live godly must expect it, especially those who will live godly in Christ Jesus, that is, according to the strict rules of the Christian religion, those who will wear the livery and bear the name of the crucified Redeemer. It is as if he said to them: "You have been well warned." Now you get out your, you know, your green and blue pens and for the inspired ones, we'll underline those with blue and we'll use red, maybe, to underline those that are not inspired, you know and, and so here I am, I'm the authority.Well, the next liberal comes along and he says, Well, no, no, no, he was wrong on that one. When the Lord was entering on His ministry He says, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" It is easy for a professed Christian to avoid persecution, if he yields every point in which religion is opposed to the world. We must remember that they were Gnostics and that the basic principle of Gnosticism was that spirit was altogether good and matter altogether evil. "Much the greatest rogue of all is the man who has gulled his city into the belief that he is fit to direct it.". Otherwise this might have seemed to be (what unbelief taunts and stigmatizes it, spite of His sanction) pride of heart and presumption. We must not be afraid of a manifest duty because it has been abused. What is the excellency of the scripture. Assuredly he would rejoice to scare Timothy from the field of serving Christ, and would shrink from no means to secure it. The moment a man makes his own will the centre of life, divine and human relationships are destroyed, obedience to God and charity to men both become impossible. Their falsity would be demonstrated and they would receive their appropriate reward. The peculiar task confided to the latter was care of doctrine much more than of outward order. Men will be implacable in their hatreds (aspondos, G786) . And that's what creates the problem all the way through. With his or her commitment to follow Christ faithfully the Christian sets the course of his or her life directly opposite to the course of the world system. It is used by ancient writers on astrology to describe what we would call a threatening conjunction of the heavenly bodies. Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel." Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. The man who has exhausted the normal pleasures of life and still unsated, will seek his thrill in pleasures which are abnormal. The fact is that God loves to make His children mutually dependent; and if we are only humble, there are very few saints from whom we may not derive some good, though not always in the same way. From , before, and , to deliver up.Those who deliver up to an enemy the person who has put his life in their hands; such as the Scots of 1648, who delivered up into the hands of his enemies their unfortunate countryman and king, Charles the First; a stain which no lapse of ages can wipe out. ( 2 Timothy 3:1) Perilous times in the last days . Certain of the temporary persecution, he is equally certain of the ultimate glory. It follows from this: (1) that they who make a profession of religion, should come prepared to be persecuted. Verse 4. But now before his heart just as in principle before the dying Lord Himself, wonderful to say two things come together: a deeper sense of what is in God, as revealed in Christ Himself, before there was any creation at all; and on the other hand so much the deeper sense also of what could be owned in nature. When a man's language becomes filthy, obscene and crude, it shows that there's something wrong with him. III. You've made a covenant and there are so many broken covenants. For "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" ( Matthew 12:34 ). Timothy's job, for the sake of the future, involves more preservation than innovation. Here is the essential conclusion. It means to follow a person mentally, to attend diligently to his teaching and fully to understand the meaning of what he says. As far as appointment went, Titus had a commission to establish elders in each city of Crete; but not so Timothy, as far as the inspired records speak. And passion shall seize him that is peaceful. He was to remember, then, "that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel: wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil-doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound." (See notes Matthew 5:10, 11, 12) The thing that amazes me is that he can attract people who will support him. It is the sign of a supremely decadent civilization when youth loses all respect for age and fails to recognize the unpayable debt and the basic duty it owes to those who gave it life. That is to say, they go through all the correct movements and maintain all the external forms of religion; but they know nothing of Christianity as a dynamic power which changes the lives of men. This is the right thing to do. A man may embrace some absurd opinion, and call it religion; he may adopt some mode of dress irresistibly ludicrous, from the mere love of singularity, and may call it "conscience;" or he may be boorish in his manners, and uncivil in his deportment, outraging all the laws of social life, and may call this "deadness to the world;" and for these, and similar things, he may be contemned, ridiculed, and despised. The Jehovah Witnesses seeking to develop their doctrine concerning hell and that it is a place of oblivion, no consciousness, no awareness. The insult which comes from anger is bad but it is forgivable, for it is launched in the heat of the moment; but the cold insult which comes from arrogant pride is an ugly and an unforgivable thing. So from his earliest childhood Timothy had known the sacred writings. He was driven from Antioch in Pisidia ( Acts 13:50); he had to flee from Iconium to avoid lynching ( Acts 14:5-6); in Lystra he was stoned and left for dead ( Acts 14:19). Afterwards he also speaks of his own work and of that which he was suffering. "Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things. He read them and never rested until he obtained the rest of the Bible. As Timothy was about to enter upon a new phase of his ministry, without the apostle's presence or living counsel, the latter charges him with great emphasis, "before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word, be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine." Barnes' Notes. 4. Truth and holiness and endurance are wanted, not authority or outward order. Every man going his own way. Whose will is to live, or who are bent on living. It is a great happiness to know the certainty of the things wherein we have been instructed (Luke 1:4); not only to know what the truths are, but to know that they are of undoubted certainty. The closing chapter (2 Timothy 4:1-22) then gives his solemn charge, and at the same time his own expression of what was before him. I watch very little, but with horror and dismay, the deterioration of a man who probably at one time had a legitimate ministry, but I've seen the gradual erosion of this person on television just right before my eyes. Indeed it may be well to remark here, that we never read of Timothy appointing bishops or elders. It is the whole spiritual experience, so to speak, of the apostle. In contrast, the sins of "evil people and impostors" can be expected to get worse and worse. 1. The adjective used is philautos ( G5367) , which means self-loving. They will be inflated with a sense of their own importance. But then another thing. The word is almost exactly the English swelled-headed. (186) Et tous ceux aussi qui veulent vivre en la crainte de Dieu. And all those also who wish to live in the fear of God., (187) Que rien ne luy est advenu que tous fideles ne doyvent aussi attendre. That nothing has happened to him which all believers must not also look for.. How appropriate that "trucebreakers" is for this day. The best way to overcome and to banish the false is to live in such a way that the loveliness and the graciousness of the truth is plain for all to see. If, in any manner, or in any way, he is subjected to disadvantage on account of his religious opinions, and deprived of any immunities and rights to which he would be otherwise entitled, this is persecution. What is a man well taught in the truth for, if not to communicate his knowledge to others that are faithful, but not equally instructed in the word of God? In the Old Testament they are not named, but they are referred to in Exodus 7:11; Exodus 8:7; Exodus 9:11. "That thou hast had good teachers. The cause of the perilous times are found in the things that people will be doing, and at the top of the list. There is instinctively, I think, within persons that love of a parent for a child or an adult for the child because we realize the helplessness of a child, the dependency that they have. All rights reserved. The defeat of error depends not on skill in controversy but in the demonstration in life of the more excellent way. Again, it is startling. It follows from this: (1) That they who make a profession of religion, should come prepared to be persecuted. ", Now when you have difficulty in your understanding of a scripture, rather than setting that aside and saying, Well, God really didn't say that; just say, hey, I really don't understand that yet. Or are you going to develop a doctrine that is diametrically opposed to what Jesus said? Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord" (there must, I suppose, have been some ground for the exhortation), "nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel, according to the power of God; who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." Whatever duty we have to do, whatever service is required from us, we may find enough in the scriptures to furnish us for it. They're profitable. That the man of God may be perfect,2 Timothy 3:17; 2 Timothy 3:17. And suddenly, of course, their tears were changed because Paul began to breathe and move and he stood up and he said, Let's go back in and preach some more. There was a certain heretic called Marcus who dealt in magic. Now this is not given to us in the Scriptures but there are other, what are known as apocryphal books, in which these two fellows are named. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: they are men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith ( 2 Timothy 3:8 ). 2. This time he was a Christian minister, and it was to the reading of the books that he attributed his change. THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL Yea, and all that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. It is able to make us wise to salvation; that is, it is a sure guide in our way to eternal life. Whether Timothy made it to Rome before Paul's execution is not known. The Kingdom had its price. They should remember that, in this respect, they are treated as the Master was, and are in the goodly company of the prophets, apostles, and martyrs; for they were all persecuted. It answers all the ends of divine revelation. These were the names given to the court magicians of Pharaoh who opposed Moses and Aaron, when Moses was leading the children of Israel out of their slavery in Egypt. Therefore it is incumbent for the Christian to look to this gravely, never to be dragged by the fear of breaking unity into accrediting what dishonours the Lord. It was a kindred error, though in an opposite direction, to that which false teachers sought to infuse among the Thessalonians: there that the day of the Lord was come, producing panic; here that the resurrection was past, leading, to ease. The words that finally decided me were those in John 18:37: 'For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Paul instructed Timothy concerning what God had revealed would take place in the last days. This may be either an injury done to his feelings, his family, his reputation, his property, his liberty, his influence; it may be by depriving him of an office which he held, or preventing him from obtaining one to which he is eligible; it may be by subjecting him to fine or imprisonment, to banishment, torture, or death. I'm just saying, Hey, I am stupid and I lack an understanding. 16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Ephesus was the town of a prosperous, materialistic civilization; it was the kind of town where a man could so easily lose his soul. Product Information. What does 2 Timothy 3:13 mean? When Carlyle's father was discussing the kind of minister his parish needed, he said: "What this parish needs is a man who knows Christ other than at secondhand." Every one who is of the truth hears my voice.' He flung the New Testament on it. All that will live godly So opposite to the spirit and practice of the world is the whole of Christianity, that he who gives himself entirely up to God, making the Holy Scriptures the rule of his words and actions, will be less or more reviled and persecuted. There is a type of person who is eager to discuss every new theory, who is always to be found deeply involved in the latest fashionable religious movement, but who is quite unwilling to accept the day-to-day discipline--even drudgery--of living the Christian life. The qualities he lists are not qualifications in the sense that anyone who fulfils these requirements is an elder (for such a person may not have the elder-shepherd qualities outlined above). "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise." And a hundred and fifty men can board it and they can submerge and go under the North Pole under the arctic ice. In the last days This often means the days of the Messiah, and is sometimes extended in its signification to the destruction of Jerusalem, as this was properly the last days of the Jewish state. Here the apostle, to confirm Timothy in that way wherein he walked. And then again "the husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits." See also 1 Timothy 4:7; 1 Timothy 6:11, and on godliness, 1 Timothy 2:2. E. F. Brown has pointed out the danger of what he calls "intellectual curiosity without moral earnestness." This I cannot but consider as a proof of want of faith. At that time Timothy was just a very young boy, probably in his mid-teens and yet he was attracted to Paul the apostle because of the message that Paul bore. In his own neighbourhood he had seen Paul suffer because of his devotion to Christ (10-12; cf. He tells him further to "hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. "He read on, forgetful of time, through the hours of the night, and just as the dawn was breaking, he stood up and declared, 'I believe'.". A. M. Chirgwin in The Bible in World Evangelism tells the story of a ward sister in a children's hospital in England. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution - Paul takes occasion from the reference to his own persecutions, to say that his case was not unique. How comes it so? THE DUTIES AND THE QUALITIES OF AN APOSTLE ( 2 Timothy 3:10-13 ). Activity of service was no longer before him. Well, Jesus has and He told us what to, what it's about in Luke, the sixteenth chapter. They cannot understand an inspired apostle talking about a cloak in the midst of a divinely given pastoral charge. Accordingly, although they are not exposed to the same assaults, and do not engage in the same battles, yet they have a warfare in common, and shall never be wholly at peace and exempt from persecutions. There was the road from the south which centred the trade of the Maeander valley in Ephesus. "Reprobate concerning the faith.". If anyone proposes to introduce into his life a loyalty which surpasses all earthly loyalties, there are bound to be clashes. Aspondos ( G786) can mean two things. Verse 2 Timothy 3:4. 3 f I thank God g whom I serve, as did my ancestors, h with a clear conscience, as I remember you i . Noah escaped? But thou hast fully known ( 2 Timothy 3:10 ), Now in contrast to this, boy, and what a contrast the Christian is to the world around him, and more and more, you know, more and more your lifestyle is different from the world. Oh I know it costs more but . Resurrection is the form and character of the lowest blessings of which Jesus is the dispenser; much more is He risen to exalt God in the highest. he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me." To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient, Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Et tous ceux aussi qui veulent vivre en la crainte de Dieu, Que rien ne luy est advenu que tous fideles ne doyvent aussi attendre. This was to touch the right chord in his heart. and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution ( 2 Timothy 3:12 ). And they shall be dispersed among the Gentiles. We can still see this kind of man in fairs and market-places shouting the virtues of a patent medicine which will act like magic. At first these magicians were able to match the wonders which Moses and Aaron did, but in the end they were defeated and discredited. Godly = adv. It is Paul's conviction that the real follower of Christ cannot escape persecution. Negative and positive illustrations 3:8-13. Then are we Christ's disciples indeed, John 8:31. He is sure that God will rescue the man who puts his faith in him. If anyone proposes to accept a set of standards quite different from the world's, he is bound to encounter trouble. We must remember that Timothy's work lay in Ephesus, perhaps the greatest market in the ancient world. Man can do it but not God. What am I to believe about God? THE VALUE OF SCRIPTURE ( 2 Timothy 3:14-17 ). Whatever therefore may be right in certain cases, the assembly of God ought never to be forced to put every case on the same dead level ought never to be bound by any special process, as if it were unalterable. I think we've gone just about as far as we can. I believe that God intended you to have pleasure, but when it comes before God, it means that it has become your God and it makes a very poor God to worship or serve. The volume of the book, the Old Testament, it's all about Jesus Christ. For after all, I'm worth it. She had been finding life, as she herself said, futile and meaningless. 2 Timothy Greeting. To many a man and woman has a little bit of dress done no small injury, just because they think it is too little for the Spirit of God to direct them in. of The deterioration, rapid deterioration so that a mother has to worry when she sends her little child to school because she doesn't know what some kinky character might do, exposing themselves to that beautiful little child or even worse. On the other hand, it is unholy to tamper with evil. But yet it is absolutely unavoidable that all of them shall have the world for their enemy in some form or other, that their faith may be tried and their steadfastness proved; for Satan, who is the continual enemy of Christ, will never suffer any one to be at peace during his whole life; and there will always be wicked men that are thorns in our sides. Now you'd think that the world would treat a person like that very cordially. As members of the Church, we should sometimes ask ourselves, what are we trying to do in it? They said, Wait a minute, this is the hand of God, we can't, we can't touch this. 2 Timothy 3:12, CSB: In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. They must not lie by us neglected, and seldom or never looked into. In the second chapter he turns to another theme, he instructs and exhorts Timothy as to communicating (not authority, or status, or gift, but) truth to others. II. And Jesus himself had said: "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake" ( Matthew 5:10). 10 million Ukrainians without power because of Russia. From childhood he has been guided by the Scriptures, and his faith in those Scriptures gives him assurance in his salvation (14-15). "And in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.". One day they said to Jesus, Show us a sign. If the Lord doesn't come soon, we're going to destroy ourselves as we just sink in the filth. After considering his own life, Paul speaks of others desiring to live godly lives as he has done, a life of piety toward God that will always be opposed by the world. (v) Paul makes a final point. Boy, I'll tell you, I don't know. Synonyms of the New Testament. In the last days perilous times will come: The word translated perilous has the idea of troubles, difficulty, and stressful situations. He warns Timothy of the fatal end of seducers, as a reason why he should stick closely to the truth as it is in Jesus: But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, c., 2 Timothy 3:13; 2 Timothy 3:13. Second Timothy 3:12-13 "Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:2, "But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every mans conscience in the sight of God."
Force Desktop View On Mobile Wordpress Plugin,
South Fork Colorado Atv Trail Map,
Matthew Roads Tropidelic Age,
Does Doja Cat Have A Twin Brother,
Articles OTHER