INTRODUCTION TO II TIMOTHY 2 In this chapter the apostle continues his exhortations to Timothy, with respect both to his office and his conversation, and closes with the character of a minister of the Gospel. The apostle having exhorted Timothy, in the former chapter, to abide by the Gospel, notwit... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU THEREFORE, MY SON,.... The illative particle, "therefore", shows the connection between this and the preceding chapter; the appellation, "thou, my son", expresses the apostle's tender affection for Timothy, and is the rather used to engage his attention to the advice he was about to give him; w... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE THINGS THAT THOU HAST HEARD OF ME,.... Meaning the doctrines of the Gospel, the form of sound words. The Arabic version renders it, "the secrets, or mysteries that thou hast heard of me"; the mysteries of the grace of God, which he had often heard him discourse of, unfold and explain: AMONG... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU THEREFORE ENDURE HARDNESS,.... "Or afflictions"; as in 2 Timothy 4:5. The same word is used there as here, and properly signifies, "suffer evil"; and means the evil of afflictions, as persecutions of every kind, loss of name and goods, scourging, imprisonment, and death itself, for the sake of... [ Continue Reading ]
NO MAN THAT WARRETH,.... Who is a soldier, and gives himself up to military service, in a literal sense: the Vulgate Latin version, without any authority, adds, "to God"; as if the apostle was speaking of a spiritual warfare; whereas he is illustrating a spiritual warfare by a corporeal one; and obs... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IF A MAN ALSO STRIVE FOR MASTERIES,.... In the Olympic games, by running, wrestling, leaping, c. YET IS HE NOT CROWNED with a corruptible, fading crown, a crown made of herbs and leaves of trees, as parsley, laurel, c. EXCEPT HE STRIVE LAWFULLY according to the laws and rules fixed for those e... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HUSBANDMAN THAT LABOURETH,.... In manuring his ground, in ploughing, in sowing, in weeding, in reaping, c. MUST BE FIRST PARTAKER OF THE FRUITS of his labour, before others; and the design may be to observe that the ministers of the word ought first to be partakers of the grace of God, the frui... [ Continue Reading ]
CONSIDER WHAT I SAY,.... The advice given by the apostle to Timothy, to be strong in the grace of Christ; to commit the doctrines of the Gospel to faithful and able men; and to endure hardness for the sake of it: as also the characters which he bore as a soldier, a runner in a race, or a wrestler, a... [ Continue Reading ]
REMEMBER THAT JESUS CHRIST OF THE SEED OF DAVID,.... This is said either as an encouragement to suffer hardness in the cause of Christ; since he, who though he was of the seed of David, of the blood royal, and heir to his crown, yet suffered and died; and whereas he rose again from the dead, those w... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREIN I SUFFER TROUBLE AS AN EVILDOER,.... As a malefactor, as if guilty of some capital crime; an enemy to the law of Moses, a pestilent fellow, a mover of sedition everywhere, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes, Acts 24:5. The Ethiopic version renders it, "as a thief". The "trouble" h... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE I ENDURE ALL THINGS FOR THE ELECTS' SAKES,.... There is a certain number of persons whom God has chosen in Christ from everlasting unto salvation, who shall certainly be saved; for these Jesus Christ suffered and died; and on their account is the Gospel sent, preached, and published to the... [ Continue Reading ]
IT IS A FAITHFUL SAYING,.... This may refer either to what goes before, that all things, all reproaches and sufferings, through the ministration of the Gospel, are endured for the elects' sake; and that shall certainly obtain salvation in Christ, and eternal glory, to which they are predestinated: o... [ Continue Reading ]
IF WE SUFFER,.... With him, with Christ, as in Romans 8:17 all the elect suffered with Christ when he suffered; they suffered in him the whole penalty of the law, all the righteousness, strictness, and severity of it; and they are partakers of the benefits of his sufferings, as peace, pardon, righte... [ Continue Reading ]
IF WE BELIEVE NOT, YET HE ABIDETH FAITHFUL,.... The Syriac and Ethiopic versions read, "if we believe not him". This may be understood, either of such who are altogether destitute of faith, who do not believe in Christ at all; and particularly do not believe what was just now said concerning his den... [ Continue Reading ]
OF THESE THINGS PUT THEM IN REMEMBRANCE,.... Meaning either his hearers, or those to whom he was to commit the things he had heard of the apostle, and who must expect to suffer afflictions, and endure hardships, for the sake of Christ, and his Gospel; wherefore to remind them of the above sayings mi... [ Continue Reading ]
STUDY TO SHOW THYSELF APPROVED UNTO GOD,.... The Alexandrian copy reads, "to Christ"; see Romans 16:10. Not unto men, as pleasing them; for such who study to please men, are not the servants of Christ; and sometimes those that are approved to and by men, are disapproved of by God and Christ: but unt... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT SHUN PROFANE AND VAIN BABBLINGS,.... The ministry of false teachers is mere babbling; a voice, and nothing else, as the man said of his nightingale; a sound of words, but no solid matter in them; great swelling words of vanity, like large bubbles of water, look big, and make a great noise, but h... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEIR WORD WILL EAT AS DOTH A CANCER,.... Or "gangrene", which gnaws and feeds upon the flesh, inflames and mortifies as it goes, and spreads swiftly, and endangers the whole body; and is therefore to be speedily taken notice of, and stopped. It is better rendered "gangrene", as in the marginal... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO CONCERNING THE TRUTH HAVE ERRED,.... That is, the two persons just mentioned; they fell from the truth, wandered and departed from it; they did not keep to the Scriptures of truth, but deviated from them; they missed that mark, and went astray into gross errors and mistakes; rejected the Gospel,... [ Continue Reading ]
NEVERTHELESS, THE FOUNDATION OF GOD STANDETH SURE,.... That faith, which is the faith of God's elect, is of the operation of God, and is the gift of his grace, and of which Christ is the author and finisher, is firm and immovable as a foundation; it is solid and substantial; it is the substance of t... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT IN A GREAT HOUSE,.... This simile the apostle makes use of, to show that it need not seem strange, nor should it be distressing to anyone's mind, to hear that men of such wicked principles and practices should be in the church of God, who are before mentioned; since in every great house or palac... [ Continue Reading ]
IF A MAN THEREFORE PURGE HIMSELF FROM THESE,.... That is, if a man clears himself, and keeps himself clear from such men as Hymenaeus and Philetus, who are comparable to wooden and earthen vessels, and are dishonourable ones; if he shuns their defiling company, and polluting principles; if he keeps... [ Continue Reading ]
FLEE ALSO YOUTHFUL LUSTS,.... Meaning not lusts of uncleanness, lasciviousness, and filthiness; nor any of those follies and vanities which the youthful age usually lusts and desires after, to which Timothy was not inclined; but such lusts as are apt to prevail with young ministers of the Gospel, su... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT FOOLISH AND UNLEARNED QUESTIONS AVOID,.... Such as have no solid wisdom in them, and are foreign from the Gospel, the wisdom of God in a mystery, and are not useful and unedifying; such ought to be avoided, publicly and privately; they should not be started in the public ministry, nor attended t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE SERVANT OF THE LORD MUST NOT STRIVE,.... By "the servant of the Lord" is not meant any believer in common, but a minister of the word, as Timothy was; such an one ought not to strive about words to no profit, about mere words, and in a litigious, quarrelsome manner, and for mastery and not t... [ Continue Reading ]
IN MEEKNESS INSTRUCTING THOSE THAT OPPOSE THEMSELVES,.... To the truth; resist it and deny it; or contradict some other tenets and principles of theirs, or the Scriptures, which they themselves allowed to be the word of God, and the rule of faith and practice, and so are self-convinced and self-cond... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THAT THEY MAY RECOVER THEMSELVES,.... Or "awake", and come to themselves, and appear to be sober, and in their right mind: the metaphor is taken from drunken men, who are overcharged, and are not in their senses, and being stupified fall asleep; and like these are persons intoxicated with errors... [ Continue Reading ]