A Worker Approved By God Series

Introduction

One fall, at the first church I served, I attended a men’s retreat. About 175 men from several churches in the district attended the weekend retreat for men. I don’t remember the name of the speaker for the men’s retreat but I do remember two things about him. First, he spoke without notes. However, he used a lot of quotations and they were written on strips of paper that he kept in different pockets. So, whenever he wanted to deliver a quotation, he would reach into one of his pockets and pull out the quotation, read it, and then place it back into the pocket from which he pulled it. He made about five or six quotes with each message and each quotation came from a different pocket. To this day, I have not figured out his system for remembering which pocket was next from which to draw his quotation!

The second thing I remember about the speaker is that he said, “If you have been a Christian for any length of time, there is little that is new to learn about the Christian faith. My job is simply to remind you of the things you already know.”

That is what Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:14 to “remind them of these things.” Paul wanted Timothy to remind both the believers and the false teachers of “these things” that he had been teaching. Paul wanted Timothy to understand how a worker is approved by God. Of course, he was not talking about salvation. A Christian receives God’s approval and is saved. But Paul was talking about how a Christian worker is approved by God in his service to the Lord.

Scripture

Let’s read 2 Timothy 2:14-19:

14 Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. 15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 16 But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, 17 and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. 19 But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.” (2 Timothy 2:14-19)

Lesson

Timothy 2:14-19 shows us several ways a worker is approved by God.

Let’s use the following outline:

1. Not Quarreling About Words (2:14)

2. Rightly Handling the Word of Truth (2:15)

3. Avoiding Irreverent Babble (2:16-18)

4. Remembering God’s Firm Foundation (2:19)

I. Not Quarreling About Words (2:14)

First, a worker is approved by God by not quarreling about words.

Paul wrote in verse 14, “Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.” Who is “them” that Timothy is to remind? It could be the faithful men mentioned earlier in 2 Timothy 2:2 who are teachers. Or it could be the believers that are part of the churches in Ephesus. More likely, however, it seems to me that Paul wanted Timothy to remind the false teachers “not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.”

This is the first of three warnings in this chapter to avoid useless arguments. The second is in verse 16, where Paul wrote, “But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness.” And the third is in verse 23, where Paul wrote, “Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.”

The teaching of the false teachers caused great damage. The Greek word for “ruins” (katastrophe) is where we get our English word “catastrophe,” and it occurs only one other time in the New Testament. It occurs in 2 Peter 2:6 where it refers to the catastrophic destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. By replacing truth with error, false teaching brings spiritual catastrophe to those who embrace it. The ruin can be eternal.

Small deviations from the truth have catastrophic consequences. Our culture is buying into the moral revolution. A growing number of people believe that gender identity is fluid and that people can define whether they are male or female. Many people believe that there is a wide range of sexual identities. While one can understand unbelievers believing this nonsense, it is sad to see that a growing number of professing Christians support it as well. We need Christians—and especially Christian pastors—to stand for biblical truth. They must not cave in to the cultural moment but must proclaim the truth. For, not doing so ruins its hearers.