2 Timothy 2:6-18 Bible Teaching

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We remember that this book along with 1st Timothy and Titus, are known as the pastoral epistles because in them Paul is teaching Timothy and Titus how to lead in the church in that day.

So much of the information comes in the form of straight-up advice, which doesn’t always make for the best study.

However, this chapter happens to hit on some true gems of insight to us today which is a blessing to believers even if the age of material religion is over.

In any case, we left off with Paul likening Timothy’s work to a race in Grecian games and telling him that when one seeks to win they must obey the rules of the competition.

This brings us to verse six – let’s read through to the end of the chapter and see if we can get there together as Paul now adds:

2nd Timothy 2.6-18
November 22nd 2020
Meat

2Ti 2:6 The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.
7 Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.
8 Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel:
9 Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.
10 Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
11 It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:
12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:
13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

14 Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.
15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
16 But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
17 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

Okay, let’s go back to verse 6.

6 The husbandman that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits.

We remember Paul telling Timothy that if he was to win the race he must play by the rules. And now he actually presents to him one of the rules, which states, according to the translation of the text that the “laborer must be the first partaker of a harvest,” meaning, those who are in the fields laboring to bring the harvest forth will naturally partake of it before those who come to buy fruit for their families or glean it for themselves though they have done no labor.

The thinking behind this is akin to airlines that tell parents to put their masks on first in the event they come down from the ceiling and then to put them on their children because if they parent passes out who will help and comfort the kids.

Likewise, if a harvester labors to bring the food to market, but waits until those buying eat, he may pass out and never finish the job on behalf of the consumer.

Therefore, Timothy, Paul says, as you are laboring partake of the bounty given to the church first, so you are able to continue your job of leading the congregation.

This is the rule that we have lived by at CAMPUS and it has been a rule that has in some ways been challenging – let me tell you why.

As funds come in to the coffers, the order that they go out is we take whatever is there and put them first to keeping CAMPUS open – paying rent, utilities, internet, taxes.

The next thing we do is apply any excess funds to promoting the ministry (either through online shows or publications).

Then, whatever is left, and usually there is not much left, I will take what’s left (within reason) to pay my bills.

This order is in harmony with what Paul says because it goes without saying that “the benefits from the harvest must first pay for shovels and fertilizers (and the like) before a laborer can even eat, right?

Because without our bills paid, there would be no C.A.M.P.U.S. – so these are the first things to be paid, but the first human to partake of what is given is me, who labors in the field itself. And that is always predicated on what remains to consume.

What gets tough for Mary and I is sometimes people come to CAMPUS in need of financial support. Because the reality of it is, whatever is meted out to them comes directly from what could be coming to us as income.

And we are not talking about a lot of money here folks. Here we have the principle explained to Timothy:

Take care of your needs first because if you don’t you won’t be there to care for the needs of the flock spiritually.

So we follow the same principle. First, we ensure that there is a CAMPUS that exists. Then we ensure that CAMPUS is being sustained through promotional productions and sometimes products, then we make sure the first laborer at CAMPUS has enough to reasonably survive each month, and from there we see what remains (to help those who come to us in need.)

By striving to maintain a low overhead, and to keep production costs low, we are able to keep pressure off people to give through the false practice of collecting funds (called tithes), and have directly learned to trust in the Lord to lead people to provide if they are able.

And he has ALWAYS provided, even though there are many times where we wonder.

I would suggest this very model to all groups who gather to study the word of God together. But generally speaking, most turn to collecting and/or tithes because it requires a true trust in the living God to come through and sometimes it will appears that he is failing, so we turn to the arm of Man to help.

Don’t do it. Build on this model and learn to live and trust the Living God wholly for the care of the gathering and those who labor in it.

Paul adds at verse 7

7 Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

Paul has given Timothy three examples (two of which we covered last week) to consider as the pastor over this flock in Ephesus:

“That of a soldier, that of a sports participant and that of a farmer and seems to say, “appeal to the principles that govern each of these as you move forward in the call on your life.”

Now, central to all three of the positions that Paul has mentioned – “soldier, athlete and farmer of a field”– is the fact of . . . suffering. Of pain. Of self-denial, of arduous labor, and often insufferable conditions.

This leads us to understand what Paul says next in verse 8, which otherwise seems to be something he just adds out of the blue, but it is, in fact, connected as he now says

8 Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel:

From the content of this verse and the way he composes it, it sounds like he wants Timothy to contemplate that Jesus was from the seed of David and that he was raised from the dead (he adds, according to his gospel, meaning according to the Gospel placed in his hands to share.)

But I would suggest that this is just a way to capture Jesus the Messiah when he brings him into this company of people who suffer, meaning it was just his way of introducing Jesus when he includes him this list of people who suffer.

So, he is essentially saying, “Remember Jesus in this gospel that I share,” (verse 9)

9 Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.

What he is saying, combining the two verses is, “Remembering Jesus in this Gospel that I share where I am constantly experiencing insufferable troubles, even marked as an evil doing and put in prison, but the Gospel continues to thrive none-the-less!”

It’s a really insightful line because like a soldier, like an athlete, like a farmer, when we remember Christ (and his suffering too) Paul says, I likewise am constantly suffering trouble, even to the point of being put in prison, but this does not stop the Gospel from going forth!

Can’t stop Niagra Falls, Timothy. So, while you are suffering in your service to the King the Gospel that you love will continue to roll forth – do not despair!

Speaking of himself Paul adds at verse 10

10 Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

This verse subtly introduces us to a principle – that in and through suffering – in the soil of suffering, the salvation of others comes forth.

We see this concept played out in the lives mentioned by Paul, don’t we?

First in the soldier, in their suffering the salvation of people appears meaning their freedom from oppressors and liberty from invading captors. All possible by the suffering of soldiers.

We see races won by athletes who suffer. In our Olympic games we rejoice as a country when someone from our respective land wins, right? We chant their names and applaud when they get on the stand for the victory they had on our behalf – often being unaware of the toil and pain they endured to have such a victory.

We go to the grocery store and relish in the food provided that nourish and sustain us, all the while pretty much oblivious to the suffering of the farmers and field hands to bring these things forward for our benefit.

And then at the height of it all, we remember Christ, the seed of David, who died and then resurrected, and how again, our very victory and salvation and reign over death and the grave, are due to immeasurable suffering on his part.

This is what Paul is speaking to – the fact that the price for salvation is pain and suffering, no matter what salvation we are speaking of.

So, he says that he endures evil doing and imprisonment knowing that it contributes to the salvation of those in the world.

The principle observation here is truly sublime, and ought to serve to open our gratitude up for all souls who have suffered on our behalf, but especially for the Christ.

This causes Paul to now say in verse 11

11 It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:

“It is true,” Paul says, “a faithful saying,” meaning, what he was about to say was worthy of Timothy’s attention. Why? It appears to be a way Paul was hoping to encourage him in his labors which if done correctly would be insufferable, akin to walking dead.

Think again about a soldier, an athlete, a farmer, Paul and Christ Himself.

All of them, if they are going to be effective in their cause, must experience a death to self – a death to their will and ways as a means to have victory over enemies which seek to harm others.

A soldier has to die to his fears, and desires to work on his car, or get an education, an athlete has to get up out of bed and train, and regiment her body and eat what she may not really like to win, Paul had to walk from all he knew and to suffer all things, and of course Jesus had to die to his own will daily, as a means to do the will of his father.

Paul fleshes this principle out that he mentions here about being dead with Christ in Romans 6, where says:

Romans 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Paradoxically, the means to bring about not only our own salvation but the salvation of others was and is death – first the death of Christ Jesus (to himself in life and of Himself in actual death) and then to our own will and ways as we pursue him daily to the grave.

Which is why Paul says,

11 It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:

Death is emblematic of suffering. It is the loss of health, loss of breath, loss of life. Death is to become immobile, ridged and ultimately a decayed representation of our former selves.

This is the insufferable nature of death in the Christian sense – our former man or woman is buried with Christ and we rise up to new identity in him.

This is our price for life with him – death with Him. Notice the qualifier given by Paul

“IF we be dead with him, we shall also live with Him.”

IF we die to our former man or woman.
IF we allow him to reign over our will.
IF we choose to die daily . . .

We shall also live with Him.

He paid the price of all sin. That is done. God’s wrath does not abide on any of us any more. But if we want to live with Him – here and afterward – we will then chose to be dead with him.

And Paul reiterates what this actually looks like or means in the next verse, saying:

12 If we suffer (like the soldier, like the athlete, like the farmer, like the Apostle Paul, like Jesus Christ himself) we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

Here again, Paul presents us with another condition – actually a couple of them. “IF we suffer, we shall also reign with Him.”
“IF we deny Him he also will deny us.”

These if/thens are emphatic. We also realize in them that suffering with him means to “suffer with him or as him” but to deny Him means to deny the suffering that comes with being His disciple more than it means a denial of his person.

But note that little phrase that is so easy to overlook in verse 12:

“If we suffer we shall also reign with him.”

The Greek term is basil-yoo-oo and is derived from the compounded terms, SOOM and Basilio, with SOOM being jointly or co, and Baslieo being king or reign.

That is the promise or goal and the driver behind dying to self and living according to Him in this life.

Paul goes on and adds something quizzical at verse 13, saying:

13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

Now, the plain English of this verse is odd because it sounds like he is saying that if choose to not believe on him He will remain faithful in saving us to His Kingdom.

First of all, he had just said, “that if we deny him he will deny us;” and furthermore other parts of the Bible are manifestly clear that salvation to His Kingdom and the path to being a joint heir are paved by faith.

So where he says here,

13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

I think the meaning is, If you, Timothy believe not, you can trust that He will be faithful to his promises and truth, as he cannot deny himself, and you will find that he will be true to the facts of salvation.

Get it? What he is really saying is the opposite of what it sound like he is saying in a literal form.

At verse 14 he shift gears a bit, and now says:

14 Of these things, (meaning of all he had just said) put them (the believers in Ephesus) in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.”

So, remind them of the these great principles but then Paul adds something important and it is something that he has said in other epistles:

“charge them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit.”

This is a running proverb from Paul, who frequently cites the dangers of striving over words to no profit.

Put two or more people in a room and if they are not focused on the same purposes and goals there is the natural tendency to strive over words – and this was not something from which the early church was immune.

The fact of the matter is words can inflict pain, words can divide, and Paul was determined to keep that bride together as one. They had ten thousand subjects over which they COULD divide; Paul is telling Timothy to charge the believers, “before the LORD to avoid striving over words to no profit.”

To me this advice is more than ignored in the history of the faith and believers ought to take the advice more to heart.

That requires a real dedication to love – but Paul also delivers a reason why this advice is important, saying:

Of these things, put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.”

Which means they profit in no way except to subvert the faith of the hearers of the arguing.

In other words, striving over things among believers accomplished nothing except turning them away from the simplicity of faith.

So, let’s stick in our conversations to the simplicity of the faith. This is not to say that we cannot discuss more complicated or even debated but these conversations must be had among people who will put agape love ahead of being right.

In the face of this advice, Paul now says something that is so important to the whole issue of Christian knowledge, doctrine and the unfortunate debates that flare up around us, as he now says:

15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Because of the placement of this passage, and the context surrounding it, I do not read it as some straight up advice in a vacuum.

Instead I see Paul writing this after having said do not allow a strife of words to occur as they are unprofitable and only serve to undermine the faith of other, INSTEAD . . . (verse 15)

”Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

In other words, you yourself prepare yourself in and through study as a means to show yourself approach unto God for, Timothy, a workman, (which is what you are – a laborer in God’s vineyard) does not need to be ashamed (of your views or beliefs) “rightly dividing the word of truth.”

To me Paul is telling Timothy that instead of getting involved with disputations and striving over words with other believers, to study to word of God himself, and to show (himself) approved before God in so doing; that there is no reason on earth to be ashamed of his knowledge obtained through such studies, as he has learned to “rightly divide the word of truth.”

This is so key! Go home and each individual study the Word and learn to rightly divide the contents. It will enable you to not be ashamed of your views and perhaps most importantly will enable you to remain calm and unruffled when others are striving with each other.

Paul brings the whole matter back into the hands of Timothy and is telling him to prepare himself by and through a study of the word and that in so doing he will be steady and unashamed if confronted by people who want to challenge him.

Paul says here that, “a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.” And since Timothy was a workman in the vineyard of Christ, he could be as unashamed (in and through his study of the Word) as an experienced carpenter would not be ashamed of his work (though it be criticized by others).

Hand in hand with this advice to become a student of the Word of Truth, Paul adds now something he said in 1st Timothy

16 But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.

Such good insight. For the simple reason when people who have become well versed in vain profane babblings their minds have a tendency to move themselves and others into less Godliness (which comes by a study of the word of truth) rather than more.

So avoid it all, Paul says. Study the word to show yourselve approved before God – and be humble but firm in your views before Him.

Those who chose to pay attention to profane and vain babblings not only increase “unto more ungodliness” but Paul says at verse 17

And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;

Meaning the discourses of those who love vain and idle disputations will “gaggraina” which is a word only used here in the New Testament, and it means it will devour or corrode the good things around something and only leave death.

It is from this word that we get the English term, gangrene, which, of course, is the spreading cell death in a limb or part of a body.

So, it is with erroneous doctrines and fables. So, study to show yourself approved. Paul then once again uses two names of people who would serve as an example for all he is saying here and mentions

Hymenaeus and Philetus.

In 1st Timothy 1:20 Paul mentioned Hymenaeus before, saying:

“Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.”

This time he includes someone names Philetus, and omits Alexander. In this we assume that Timothy know who Paul is talking about. But Paul continues in his description of these two and adds at verse 18

18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

Whether concerning the truth these have erred in more places than one we do not know. But we what we do know is Paul specifically mentions one of their errors, that they proclaimed that

“the resurrection is past already; (which, Paul says, resulted in) the “overthrow of the faith of some.”

This teaching that the resurrection has passed was working like gangrene in the Bride and Paul referred to it as a profane and vain babbling.

We don’t really know what caused these men to hold to this view. Nor do we know the specifics of the false teaching.
(And there have been some conjecture over the years of what the specifics were).

Whatever it was, apostle regarded it as a most dangerous error. I, however, want to take what Paul says here, that they taught that the resurrection was past, and address the gangrenous view to the body in that day.

See, the resurrection is always associated in scripture with the Lord’s Second Coming. To teach that the resurrection was past then would be to also teach that His parousea, his second appearance, was also past.

And this teaching would have lead those believers then without hope.

Why would the teaching leave them without hope? Because Jesus had plainly and directly taught them and the disciples that he was coming back to take his worthy bride from the ravages around them and on this promise they relied; on this promise the apostles encouraged them; on this promise they clung to the tenets of the faith and the apostles directives.

To suggest that the resurrection was past, which tacitly meant the Second Coming had passed, was to tell the believers that they missed the boat, that Jesus had come, resurrected those who were his, and those who were left behind were out of luck.

This would deflate their hope in Christ and would have led to a mutiny of the faith – which is why the teaching (and those who taught it) is specifically mentioned here by Paul.

There are a number of places where this theme appears – 2nd Thessalonians, 1st Corinthians 15 – and if you take all that Paul says in them in response to the fables, you get a pretty good idea of what the apostles expected of the resurrection, the time-stamp for its arrival, and all the signs that would lead up to it, which would commence upon his return.

We will stop here for today.

Comments/Questions/Prayer.