2Ti 2:16-21 | KingComments | STEP | . With the denying you could speak about a denying that happens by men and a denying that happens by the Lord (even though it is with a difference in meaning). That is not possible regarding being faithless. We people can be faithless, but the Lord cannot possibly be faithless. He can deny people who deny Him, but He cannot deny Himself. He cannot possibly become faithless to Himself. He cannot act in contrast to Whom He is as the Holy and Righteous. He cannot be with us if we are faithless. If we are faithless He will encounter us with proper measures to bring us back on the way of obedience to Him. That can be painful measures. In any case they are measures that humble us because God wants to bring us to repentance and confession. Then He can bless us again in that same faithfulness to Himself, for that is what He has in mind for us. . What Paul said in the previous verses Timothy must remind the believers of. He has to impress these particular aspects of the truth unto his hearers and not only once, but again and again. Furthermore, Timothy must strongly warn the believers to carefully pay attention to their words. He has to empower his warning by pointing out to them that all of their words are indeed spoken out to one another, but also in the presence of God. The consciousness that God is Witness of what we say, will make us cautious in our words. Then we will not be quickly tempted to strive about words. Words are important in clearly explaining the truth. But if it causes a strife about words the result will be the ruin of the hearers. The goal of every service is that the hearers will benefit and profit by it and not that it will cause damage to them or even destroy their whole faith life. . To maintain yourself and not to be dragged into a strife about words for example, you must be “diligent to present yourself approved to God”. The point is that God can see you as someone who despite continuous trials, has remained faithful to Him. That doesn’t come naturally to you, but it demands of you that you discipline yourself and carefully make efforts for it. If the only important thing for you is what the Lord thinks of you, you will be “a workman who does not need to be ashamed”. The word ‘workman’ doesn’t indicate a particular position. It is about people who make efforts and great sacrifices to serve the believers. If you also want to make efforts for that you will have no reason to be ashamed, for your labor will not be in vain or worthless. “The word of the truth” is the total of the revelation given by God in His Word. The “accurately handling” of the word of truth means that in explaining the truth a right course through the Scripture is followed, that the explanation of the truth may be well-balanced. The expression ‘accurately handling’ was used for example by architects at designing a building. Each part was put in the right place, where the ground parts had to be in the right proportion to the walls. This shows how important it is that each part of the Word of God is given its right context and place. The highlighting of the one truth will not be at the expense of the other truths, but the harmony between the different parts of the truth will be proven. If law and grace are mixed together or if Jewish rituals are being introduced in the Christian worship service there is not an accurately handling of the word of truth. . If you deal with God’s Word in this way you will have no difficulty with recognizing "worldly [and] empty chatter" and with avoiding this. It is not expected of you that you try to make them change their mind. That is wasted energy and you will also expose yourself to their depraved chatter. It is not unthinkable that you will be influenced by it. . These people will not repent, but on the contrary, they will make things worse. They cannot be stopped. “Their talk will spread like gangrene.” The word ‘spread’ literally means ‘find pasture’, like in John 10 ( ). Their message refers not only to their doctrine as a false doctrine, but their total speech reveals their evil thinking. What they say works like leaven: it affects everything that comes into contact with it. In that way this virus of their evil words spreads around them and extends itself unstoppably. Therefore you are ordered to avoid it and not to have anything to do with it. Again Paul names two names. In chapter 1 he named two names of persons who turned their back on him ( ). . The names he now mentions regards persons “who have gone astray from the truth”. Their error is that they say that the resurrection has already taken place. They do not deny the resurrection, but declare that as something that had happened already and therefore not something that is still to take place. That would mean that you are made perfect already, that you cannot sin anymore and that you can claim the world for yourself. It also means that when you die everything stops there. The resurrection had taken place already after all, had it not? To avoid any possibility to be caught in the snare of any error, it is essential for you to read and know God’s Word. You are not to have anything to do with men who proclaim things that mutilate the work of the Lord Jesus and its results by attaching their own reasoning to it. They make themselves instruments of the devil who always seeks to distort God’s Word and in that way deprive it from its true meaning. Those are people who “upset the faith” of unstable souls, people who do not read the Bible themselves in a praying attitude in order to experience in that way their fellowship with God. . These servants of the devil who are among Christians are not always directly recognizable. Sometimes you may wonder: Is it a child of God whom I am dealing with, or not? Much of what is said sounds so familiar, so biblical, that you love to accept it as an enrichment of your faith life. It often also sounds wonderful. Still they also say things or teach things that make you sense that something is wrong or of which you must admit that they are not in accordance with the Bible. You observe a certain mixture. You hear beautiful things and you hear strange or even wrong things. This confusion has entered professing Christianity because Christians have not remained alert, which gave the devil the opportunity to introduce wrong elements ( ). How should you deal with that? You do not want to accuse anyone falsely, but you especially do not want to expose yourself to false doctrines. You want to learn from others, but you also want to be able to recognize the other person as a true child of God who is sound in teaching God’s Word. You want to have fellowship with believers, but you do not want to have fellowship with the evil. Fellowship with the Lord means everything to you and therefore you want to be on your guard against doctrines that cause you to turn away from the Lord. Paul uses the word “nevertheless” or ‘however’ in his response to all these arguments as an introductory to a holdfast for circumstances where everything is in confusion. There indeed is “the firm foundation of God” to which a seal is attached. This seal is a security with two aspects. The one aspect of this security is the side of God, what He sees. Even though it may sometimes be difficult or nearly impossible for you to discover whether a person is a true believer or not, that is no problem to the Lord. He knows exactly who belongs to Him. It is out of the question that He can be confused. He knows exactly who has new life, because He Himself has given it. The other aspect of this security is the side of man, what you see. You can judge someone’s life, just as others can judge yours, as a matter of fact. You see if a person “who names the name of the Lord”, who confesses to know Him, this also shows in his life. With someone who has new life you will notice that he doesn’t want to participate in anything that gives a wrong presentation of the Lord Jesus or His work and that he willingly gives the Word of God full authority over his life. Now read 2 Timothy 2:13-19 again. Reflection: Which contrasts do you encounter in this portion?

‏ 2 Timothy 2:16-21

The Solid Foundation of God

2Tim 2:13. With the denying you could speak about a denying that happens by men and a denying that happens by the Lord (even though it is with a difference in meaning). That is not possible regarding being faithless. We people can be faithless, but the Lord cannot possibly be faithless. He can deny people who deny Him, but He cannot deny Himself. He cannot possibly become faithless to Himself. He cannot act in contrast to Whom He is as the Holy and Righteous. He cannot be with us if we are faithless.

If we are faithless He will encounter us with proper measures to bring us back on the way of obedience to Him. That can be painful measures. In any case they are measures that humble us because God wants to bring us to repentance and confession. Then He can bless us again in that same faithfulness to Himself, for that is what He has in mind for us.

2Tim 2:14. What Paul said in the previous verses Timothy must remind the believers of. He has to impress these particular aspects of the truth unto his hearers and not only once, but again and again. Furthermore, Timothy must strongly warn the believers to carefully pay attention to their words. He has to empower his warning by pointing out to them that all of their words are indeed spoken out to one another, but also in the presence of God.

The consciousness that God is Witness of what we say, will make us cautious in our words. Then we will not be quickly tempted to strive about words. Words are important in clearly explaining the truth. But if it causes a strife about words the result will be the ruin of the hearers. The goal of every service is that the hearers will benefit and profit by it and not that it will cause damage to them or even destroy their whole faith life.

2Tim 2:15. To maintain yourself and not to be dragged into a strife about words for example, you must be “diligent to present yourself approved to God”. The point is that God can see you as someone who despite continuous trials, has remained faithful to Him. That doesn’t come naturally to you, but it demands of you that you discipline yourself and carefully make efforts for it.

If the only important thing for you is what the Lord thinks of you, you will be “a workman who does not need to be ashamed”. The word ‘workman’ doesn’t indicate a particular position. It is about people who make efforts and great sacrifices to serve the believers. If you also want to make efforts for that you will have no reason to be ashamed, for your labor will not be in vain or worthless.

“The word of the truth” is the total of the revelation given by God in His Word. The “accurately handling” of the word of truth means that in explaining the truth a right course through the Scripture is followed, that the explanation of the truth may be well-balanced. The expression ‘accurately handling’ was used for example by architects at designing a building. Each part was put in the right place, where the ground parts had to be in the right proportion to the walls.

This shows how important it is that each part of the Word of God is given its right context and place. The highlighting of the one truth will not be at the expense of the other truths, but the harmony between the different parts of the truth will be proven. If law and grace are mixed together or if Jewish rituals are being introduced in the Christian worship service there is not an accurately handling of the word of truth.

2Tim 2:16. If you deal with God’s Word in this way you will have no difficulty with recognizing "worldly [and] empty chatter" and with avoiding this. It is not expected of you that you try to make them change their mind. That is wasted energy and you will also expose yourself to their depraved chatter. It is not unthinkable that you will be influenced by it.

2Tim 2:17. These people will not repent, but on the contrary, they will make things worse. They cannot be stopped. “Their talk will spread like gangrene.” The word ‘spread’ literally means ‘find pasture’, like in John 10 (Jn 10:9). Their message refers not only to their doctrine as a false doctrine, but their total speech reveals their evil thinking. What they say works like leaven: it affects everything that comes into contact with it. In that way this virus of their evil words spreads around them and extends itself unstoppably. Therefore you are ordered to avoid it and not to have anything to do with it.

Again Paul names two names. In chapter 1 he named two names of persons who turned their back on him (2Tim 1:15).

2Tim 2:18. The names he now mentions regards persons “who have gone astray from the truth”. Their error is that they say that the resurrection has already taken place. They do not deny the resurrection, but declare that as something that had happened already and therefore not something that is still to take place. That would mean that you are made perfect already, that you cannot sin anymore and that you can claim the world for yourself. It also means that when you die everything stops there. The resurrection had taken place already after all, had it not?

To avoid any possibility to be caught in the snare of any error, it is essential for you to read and know God’s Word. You are not to have anything to do with men who proclaim things that mutilate the work of the Lord Jesus and its results by attaching their own reasoning to it. They make themselves instruments of the devil who always seeks to distort God’s Word and in that way deprive it from its true meaning. Those are people who “upset the faith” of unstable souls, people who do not read the Bible themselves in a praying attitude in order to experience in that way their fellowship with God.

2Tim 2:19. These servants of the devil who are among Christians are not always directly recognizable. Sometimes you may wonder: Is it a child of God whom I am dealing with, or not? Much of what is said sounds so familiar, so biblical, that you love to accept it as an enrichment of your faith life. It often also sounds wonderful.

Still they also say things or teach things that make you sense that something is wrong or of which you must admit that they are not in accordance with the Bible. You observe a certain mixture. You hear beautiful things and you hear strange or even wrong things. This confusion has entered professing Christianity because Christians have not remained alert, which gave the devil the opportunity to introduce wrong elements (Mt 13:24-25 ; 37-39).

How should you deal with that? You do not want to accuse anyone falsely, but you especially do not want to expose yourself to false doctrines. You want to learn from others, but you also want to be able to recognize the other person as a true child of God who is sound in teaching God’s Word. You want to have fellowship with believers, but you do not want to have fellowship with the evil. Fellowship with the Lord means everything to you and therefore you want to be on your guard against doctrines that cause you to turn away from the Lord.

Paul uses the word “nevertheless” or ‘however’ in his response to all these arguments as an introductory to a holdfast for circumstances where everything is in confusion. There indeed is “the firm foundation of God” to which a seal is attached. This seal is a security with two aspects. The one aspect of this security is the side of God, what He sees. Even though it may sometimes be difficult or nearly impossible for you to discover whether a person is a true believer or not, that is no problem to the Lord. He knows exactly who belongs to Him. It is out of the question that He can be confused. He knows exactly who has new life, because He Himself has given it.

The other aspect of this security is the side of man, what you see. You can judge someone’s life, just as others can judge yours, as a matter of fact. You see if a person “who names the name of the Lord”, who confesses to know Him, this also shows in his life. With someone who has new life you will notice that he doesn’t want to participate in anything that gives a wrong presentation of the Lord Jesus or His work and that he willingly gives the Word of God full authority over his life.

Now read 2 Timothy 2:13-19 again.

Reflection: Which contrasts do you encounter in this portion?

A Vessel for Honor

You may say that the verses that appear to you in this section are very up to date. The confusion in professing Christianity is increasing. How are you supposed to find your way there? Fortunately the Lord has foreseen the situation that the circumstances will not be any more like at the beginning of the church. In those days no one of the unbelievers dared to associate with the believers (Acts 5:12-14). That is not the case anymore. Nowadays there is much chaff among the wheat.

You read in the previous section that the Lord knows who belongs to Him (cf. Jn 10:14), although you are not always able to see that. You also saw the side of your responsibility that you are to abstain from what is in contrast to God’s holiness and righteousness. The measure of that is Christ, His Person and His work and the Word of God. If the perfection of Christ or His work or the Word of God is being questioned, or wrongly presented or if aspects of these truths are being denied, you do not need to ask yourself whether you have to do with a believer or not. You can leave that to the Lord. Your task is to abstain from everyone who does that and from every Christian congregation that tolerates that.

2Tim 2:20. To clarify Paul uses the example of a large house. You may remember that he also spoke about a house in his first letter (1Tim 3:15). There he calls the church of the living God “the household of God”. He means by that, that all true believers form that house. Here he doesn’t speak about ‘the house of God’, but about ‘a large house’. To find out what he means by that you should look at the things that are in it, the ‘vessels’.

Just like the large house represents something these vessels also represent something. First, a vessel is an indication for a person (cf. Acts 9:15; 1Thes 4:4). Furthermore, two things stand out when you read the description of the vessels:

1. there is a distinction in material: “gold and silver …, but also … of wood and of earthenware” and

2. there is a distinction in use: “some to honor and some to dishonor”.

We first look at the distinction in material. It is also important what these materials do represent. You learn more about that in 1 Corinthians 3 (1Cor 3:12-13). You read there that the fire makes the distinction clear. The fire doesn’t change anything about the gold and silver, but it consumes the wood and earthenware. The fire represents the righteousness of God by which all things are tested and examined.

‘Gold and silver vessels’ represent the believers. When God puts them to the test and examines them in His righteousness, it will become clear that they possess God’s righteousness in Christ.

‘Vessels of wood and earthenware’ represent the unbelievers. When God in His righteousness puts them to the test and examines them they will be consumed, for they do not have Christ as their righteousness. Thinking back to the seal (2Tim 2:19), then you have here the side of the seal that says that the Lord knows those who are His. To say it metaphorically like Paul does here: the Lord knows who the vessels of gold and silver are and who the vessels of wood and clay are, although we are not always able to see that.

But also your side is being dealt with in the metaphor. Often you are not able to judge the distinction in material because of the confusion that prevails in professing Christianity. What you certainly are able to do and should do is judging whether a person is a vessel to honor or a vessel to dishonor. Here you have the other side of the seal. A vessel to honor is a person who names the Name of the Lord and demonstrates that by abstaining from wickedness.

2Tim 2:21. Up till now it seems that it is only about judging what others do, but the important question is of course whether you want to be a vessel for honor. The answer to that question can be ‘yes’. But there is a condition attached to that. To be a vessel for honor you are to cleanse yourself from the vessels to dishonor. And who are the vessels to dishonor? People who do not want to abstain from wickedness.

What does that mean: to abstain from wickedness? This abstaining has two aspects. It means to abstain from people who bring the wrong doctrine. It also means abstaining from people who do not bring the wrong doctrine themselves, but still consciously remain associated with those who bring the wrong doctrine. They don’t do anything about it if things are being taught that are directly in contrast with the Scripture. You have an example in Christian congregations where liberal theologians are allowed to freely bring their depraved doctrines or where unbiblical ways of life e.g. unmarried cohabitation or homosexual relationships are being accepted, while according to God’s Word discipline has to be exercised by the local church.

I would like to point out emphatically that in this portion it is about your personal faithfulness and your personal responsibility. It is important for you to keep seeing the context of this section. Then you will see that abstaining from wickedness is something you do yourself. God’s Word doesn’t say here that you must demand that of others. Each person must deal for his own sake accordingly this Scriptural word. You are to cleanse yourself from sin in your own life and from sin in the congregation you are. If the congregation doesn’t ‘clean out’ (1Cor 5:7 ; 13) the leaven (a metaphor of sin), you have here the instruction to ‘cleanse’ yourself from these things.

I would also like to point out emphatically that it is about doctrines or practices that violate the foundations of the Christian faith, namely Christ and His Word. It definitely is not about a distinction of insight in certain truths of the Scripture. Unfortunately, there are a lot of differences among Christians about e.g. the future or about the church. But that’s not the point here. I don’t say that it is not important what the Scripture says about the future or about the church. Everything in the Scripture is important, for the Scripture is totally God’s Word. Nevertheless, you are not supposed to put the different understanding of a truth from the Scripture on the same level with the violation of the Person of the Lord Jesus or the violation of the foundation of our faith. The latter is what this section is about, because it is about Him and His work. Regarding that there may not be any difference of understanding.

The reason why I also separate from other believers when it is about how to be a local church, has nothing to do with the call to abstain from wickedness. I also do not join congregations where there is no evil in the sense of fundamentally false teachings, but where the form of being a church is not according to what I have discovered about it in God’s Word. When I for example look at Acts 2 or 1 Corinthians 14 (Acts 2:42; 1Cor 14:26-40), I really want to be there where people desire to practice that.

I have gone into more details regarding this section because many believers were caused and are still being caused much injustice on the occasion of this section. That happens by speaking about them as ‘vessels to dishonor’, while those believers also reject everything that violate Christ and His work and Word. Even though their idea of fulfilling the conditions of ‘being a church’ is different from what my conviction is, they will stand up for the honor of the Lord. They resist against wrong teachings and do not tolerate living in sin. Such Christians also want, like I do, to “be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master”.

Fortunately there are all over the world committed Christians to be found who honor the Lord with their life. They are true vessels for honor. They live a holy life and they therefore often experience slander and persecution by the world, more often than we do. They not only confess with their mouth the Lord Jesus to be their “Master”, a name that indicates the absolute authority of Christ over their life, but their whole life testifies of that.

I hope that it also applies to you. Then you are “prepared for every good work”, that means that you are ready to do a service that is ‘good’. That is what you want too, and that is only to be welcomed.

Now read 2 Timothy 2:20-21 again.

Reflection: How could you be a vessel for honor?