(2 Tim. 21―3:17).
The writer of this article addresses you assuming that you have opened your Bible at the verses indicated above and are going to follow him with your eye upon the passage. Consequently all long quotations of Scripture are avoided and mere references cut down to a minimum, If you do not read with the Scripture open before you it is hardly likely that you will derive much help from your reading.
Read carefully. Read prayerfully. Read thoughtfully.
LET us at this point recapitulate for a moment. Verses 17 and 18 of the second chapter have given us in few words the case of grave doctrinal error which was in question. Verse 19 states in general terms the responsibility that rests abidingly upon all those who name the Name of the Lord. Verse 20 enforces this responsibility by an illustration. Verse 21 applies the general principle of verse 19 to the case in point in a very definite and particular way.
The word in the original which is translated “purge” is a very strong one. It means not only to purge or cleanse but to cleanse out. The same word is used in 1 Corinthians 5:7,7Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: (1 Corinthians 5:7) where it is rightly translated, “purge out.” The evil was purged out by putting the wicked person away from amongst themselves, according to verse 13 of that chapter. Here the individual believer — “a man”— is to purge himself out from amongst the wicked persons and their teaching; thus he will depart from iniquity and be prepared for all that is good.
These instructions are very important, for experience, no less than Scripture, teaches us how impossible it is to maintain personal holiness and spiritual fitness in association with evil. Righteous Lot may form links with Sodom, God-fearing Jehoshaphat may strike up an alliance with Baal-worshipping Ahab, but both inevitably become lowered and defiled in the process. So it will be for us today. So let us be warned.
We are not however to expect complete isolation because we cut our links with evil for we are to find happy association with those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart, or, “a purged heart,” for it is the same word used again only without the prefix signifying “out.” In so doing we are to “flee youthful lusts,” that is, be very careful as to purity and holiness of a personal sort, for without that all this care as to purity in one’s associations would degenerate into mere hypocrisy. We are also to make the pursuit of “righteousness, faith, love, peace” our great concern. This will preserve us from becoming mere separatists in the spirit of, “stand by, for I am holier than thou!” We shall rather be actively and happily occupied with what is good and of eternal worth.
The four things we are to pursue are intimately connected. Righteousness is that which is right before God, and if we pursue it we shall certainly be marked by obedience to His truth and will. To pursue faith means following after those great spiritual realities made known to us in the Scriptures, for faith serves as the telescope of the soul and brings them into view. To pursue love is to follow that which is the very expression of the divine nature. Peace naturally follows the other three. Any peace apart from them would be no true peace at all.
Verse 23 indicates that, when Timothy or others have carried out the apostolic instructions we have been considering, they still have need to avoid pitfalls which the adversary will place in their way. He will still introduce, if he can, “foolish and unlearned questions” in order to create strife. The literal meaning of the word is not quite “unlearned” but “undisciplined,” it indicates, “a mind not subject to God, a man following his own mind and will.” There is nothing we ought to fear more than the working of our own minds and wills in the things of God.
The servant of the Lord must avoid strife at all costs. He cannot avoid conflict if he remains true to his Master, but he must not strive, i.e., he must avoid the contentious spirit, he must never forget that though he stands for the Lord he is only a servant, and hence he must be marked by the meekness that befits that position. In reading the earlier part of the chapter we noticed that various figures are used to show the different characters that the believer wears. He is a soldier, an athlete, a husbandman, a workman, a vessel, and now we are reminded that he is a servant, and not only so but, a servant of the Lord, and hence he must be careful not to belie the character of the Lord whom he serves.
We might have supposed that anyone obeying the instructions of verses 19-22 would be entirely removed from everybody who would be likely to oppose. Verses 24-26 show that this is not so. The Lord’s servant will still come into contact with those who oppose and he must know how to meet them. He must be apt to teach and give himself to instructing his opponents rather than arguing with them. He must be armed with the love that will enable him to meet them in gentleness, patience and meekness; with the faith that will keep the truth clearly and steadily before his own mind and theirs; with the hope that counts on God to grant to them the mercy of repentance and recovery from the snare of Satan.
With the opening of chapter 3. the Apostle turns from these instructions, which sprang out of the dangers which were threatening at that moment, to foretell the conditions which should prevail in the last clays. The picture that he presents is a very dark one.
In the first verse he gives us the general character of the last days in two words “perilous times.” We shall do well to bear this warning continually in mind inasmuch as there can be but little doubt that we are now in the last days and spiritual perils are thick around us.
In verses 2 to 5 the characteristics of the men of the last days are brought before us. It is a terrible list, rivalling the list given us in Romans 1:2828And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; (Romans 1:28) to 31, when the sins of the ancient heathen world are described. The most fearful thing about the list of our chapter is that all this evil is covered under “a form of godliness,” that is, the people who are thus described are Christian as far as their claims and outward appearance go. The real power of Christianity they utterly deny.
“Men shall be lovers of their own selves,” this is the first item on the list. The second is, “covetous” or “lovers of money.” The list ends, “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” Love of self, love of money and love of pleasure are to mark the religious people of the last days, and as for all the evil things mentioned between they indicate the various ways in which the proud, self-sufficient, lawless spirit of fallen man expresses itself ― and all this, remember, in people who call themselves followers of the meek and lowly Jesus. If we know anything of the present state of the so-called Christian nations we may well conclude that we have reached the last days.
The attitude of the faithful believer to such is very simple; from such he is enjoined to turn away, rather than go along with them in the hope of reclaiming them. Separation is enjoined for the sixth time in this short passage; the words used being, “shun,” “depart,” “purge out,” “flee,” “avoid,” and now, “turn away.” The present age being one which loves compromise the word, “separation,” is naturally not at all popular, still here is that which the word stands for, urged upon us as the commandment of the Lord; and our business is not to reason about it but to obey.
The description of verse 2 to 5 applies generally to the men of the last days. In verse 6 two special classes come into view — first, those who are active deceivers, and second, those who fall an easy prey to their deceits. The Apostle’s word indicates that there were to be found in his day examples of both these classes. The deceivers, he says, are “of this sort” i.e., of the kind described in verse 2 to 5, and their work is carried on in a semi-private way for they “creep into houses.” In the light of this inspired word it is very significant what an amount of house to house propaganda, with considerable success in creeping into houses and beguiling unstable souls, is carried on by the agents of false religious cults, such as Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists, Russellites, etc.
Those deceived are spoken of here as “silly women,” doubtless a term of contempt and applicable to that type of person who is always inquiring and yet never reaching any settled convictions, be they man or woman. The reason for their blindness and consequent lack of conviction is their sins and the lusts which bring forth sin. It is a striking fact that this “silly women” class is recruited quite as much from the ranks of the refined and learned as from the rude and illiterate. The rough man of the street generally has pretty definite opinions of some sort; opinions which, right or wrong, he can express with vigor. It is frequently the highly educated who lose themselves in mazes of speculation and finish by accepting some pretentious nonsense which is the very opposite of the truth. Take, for instance, the way in which Christian Science captures its victims almost entirely from the rich and would-be intellectual folk.
We cannot however, shut out from all this the power of Satan, as verse 8 and 9 show us. Jannes and Jambres were evidently leaders of the band of magicians who influenced Pharoah’s court and withstood Moses, working their wonders in league with demons. The deceivers of the last days will be like them, resisting the truth as agents of the devil. God has however, set a limit to their power and ultimately their folly shall be manifest to all. This does not mean that this kind of evil is going to receive an immediate check for, as verse 13 tells us, evil men and seducers are going to wax worse and worse until the end of the age. We are not left in any uncertainty as to what we must expect.
Nor are we left in uncertainty as to our resources in the presence of the evil. They are set before us in our chapter from verse 10 and onwards. Over against the character of the men of the last days the Apostle was inspired to set the character which he bore and which Timothy well knew. What an extraordinary contrast to verse 2 to 5 is presented by verse 10 and 11! Self-love, pride, opposition to and persecution of those that are good, on the one hand; faith love, patient endurance under persecution, on the other. The one is the full-blown spirit of the world; the other is the spirit of Christ; and it has always been the case that “he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit” (Gal. 4:2929But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. (Galatians 4:29)). Hence persecution must always be expected by those who “live godly in Christ Jesus,” though the form that persecution takes may vary in different countries and in different ages. The type of godliness produced by the law of Moses might excite but little or no opposition whilst godliness “in Christ Jesus” is being hotly resisted.
Paul’s “manner of life” was based upon his doctrine; it gave expression, to it in practice; hence in verse 10 doctrine comes first. With that doctrine Timothy was well acquainted, and he had but to continue in the truth he had learned from such a source. He also had the inestimable advantage of having known the Holy Scriptures—the Old Testament, of course—from a child. In these two things Timothy’s resource lay.
In these two things lies our resource today, only for us the two practically coalesce into one. Timothy had Paul’s doctrine from his own lips, expressed in a “form of sound words” (1:13) exemplified and enforced by his wonderful manner of life. We have his doctrine in his inspired epistles preserved in the New Testament, and no form of sound words is more reliable than that. In the New Testament we have also an inspired account of Paul’s wonderful life, and also the other apostolic writings. We have therefore in this respect a little more than Timothy had, and we have the Old Testament equally with him, though alas! we may not be nearly as fully acquainted with it or with Paul’s doctrine as he was. For us then the great resource is the Holy Scripture in its entirety.
This being so the Holy Spirit seized the occasion to assure us of the inspiration of all Scripture. Its profitableness for various uses all depends upon this fact. Who can teach or reprove or correct or instruct in what is right, in any perfect and absolute sense, but God? The reason why Scripture can do these things is that it is “inspired of God” or “God-breathed.”
The claim here unquestionably is that the Book which we know as the Bible is a God-breathed book. Some of our readers might like to inquire — What about the Revised Version of this passage? Our reply is that the Authorized Version is right here and the Revised is wrong. In the original, according to Greek idiom, the verb “is” does not appear, being understood though not expressed. In English it must appear and the question is as to where it should be? Remarkably enough there are eight other passages in the New Testament of exactly similar construction and every one of them but this the Revisers translated just as the Authorized has translated this. Why make an exception in this case?
The thing that Timothy needed was to be assured that he had in the Scriptures that which was of God and therefore wholly reliable — something on which he could safely take his stand when confronted with the dangers and seductions to be expected in the last days. This is exactly what we too want, and, God be thanked, we have it in the Bible.
F. B. HOLE.