Sound Doctrine for Unsound Times
2 Timothy 3:14–4:5 NKJV
But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
By the time Paul wrote this final letter to Timothy, his life in this world was in extreme peril. He was about to be executed for his Christian faith and writes to Timothy, his son in the faith, and reminds him that this same peril was coming to him as well as all Christian believers in the Roman Empire. This isn’t to say that times were not perilous for Paul and many Christians before this time, as we can read from Scripture. This was written either just before or after the fire in Rome which Nero blamed on the Christians. Many Christians would suffer death in hideous ways. The writer of Hebrews also alludes that the persecution they were suffering was about to escalate to bloodshed (Hebrews 12:4 “You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.” )
Paul, Peter, and many of the leaders of the church had died or were about to die. Only the Apostle John would be spared for a season to provide continuity between the first and second generation of leadership as the last apostolic and personal witness to Jesus’ life and mission. 2 Timothy acts as a sort of last will and testament of a ministry he is bequeathing to Timothy. This puts special importance on these words. there were many occasions during the ministry of Paul and Timothy in which other important issues within the churches were dealt with. Some of these more day to day issues have been bequeathed to us so that we might have a guide for the normal conduct of church business. They are important for this reason. Even here, Paul reminds Timothy that all-Scripture is God-breathed and useful for doctrine. But as we come to the last chapter of Paul’s last epistle, we are reminded of this.
In an earlier sermon, we saw the importance of tradition, how it has a good purpose when rightly used. Not all traditions handed down were good ones. The problem with groups like the Pharisees was not that tradition itself is bad but that they used their human traditions to nullify the word and will of God. We learned of the good traditions which had been passed down to Timothy such as the love for the Scripture and a genuine faith which was demonstrated in the examples of Timothy’s mother and grandmother. He had also been mentored in the ministry by Paul for over two decades. These things would prepare Timothy well for the times to come.
Paul gives special instruction that Timothy preach sound doctrine and give special attention to it. This solid doctrine is based upon Scripture which is more than inspired. It is God-breathed. If we go back to Creation, we read that God breathed life into the flesh of Adam which He had created. Adam became a living soul, created in the image of God. Jesus reminds us that His words are Spirit and life (John 6:63). By the Word, God breathes life into our lives. This is why they are profitable to us. We have no life without the Word of God. As Adam’s flesh existed before God breathed into him. We existed in the flesh. But we only come alive in the true sense when God breathes His word into us.
There are four things that Paul mentions are the profit of studying the Scripture. These are doctrine, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. Please note that doctrine appears first in the list. We also read the following in the Book of Acts:
Acts 2:42 NKJV
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Again, doctrine appears first in the list. Martyn Lloyd-Jones emphasizes that it is important to realize that of all the important characteristics of the church that doctrine comes first. This is what unites us as Christians. In today’s church, we emphasize fellowship and tend to downplay doctrine. There is a saying that doctrine divides but love unites. the trouble is that fellowship needs a sound foundation. without a sound doctrinal core, we have no boundaries to define what fellowship is. Why do we break bread? We argue far too much over the Lord’s Supper as it is. But is not the communion an acted out sermon in which we remembers Christ’s sacrifice for our sins, remembers that we are one body in Christ, and that Christ will return. These are doctrinal statements. It is the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper which gives meaning to the breaking of bread. It is doctrine which informs our prayers. Without sound doctrine, all these other things will have a wrong interpretation or is even meaningless activity.
Sound doctrine comes first. And sound doctrine must be based upon the God-breathed Scripture. This is our bulwark for these perilous times we live in, even as it would be in the perilous times that Timothy and the second generation of the Church was about to face. Therefore, it is vital that we in the Church today teach the Scripture and its correct interpretation. This is not easy to do, but it is better than the anything goes which is happening in to many of the churches today.
When we say “perilous times”, it seems that we want to apply it to the world we live in. We are concerned about external persecution and how we should deal with it. We live in a word full of Narcissists. This was true in Timothy’s times, and I would guess to be more of less true for all generations. The Scripture clearly teaches that God is to be the primary object of our love. Does not Scripture say that we are to love the LORD our God with all of our hearts, all of our souls, and all of our strength (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). Jesus adds that the second love is to love our neighbor as ourselves, quoting Leviticus 19). Thes is a Scripture-based doctrine for perilous times. The unsaved man is in love with himself and loves to boast about it. when Narcissist meets narcissist, all sorts of conflict results. When narcissists gather as a nation of narcissists, then we have wars as everyone thinks they are entitled to everything someone else has.
But there is even a greater peril to the Church. This is corruption of the body from within. We see in the book of Acts that the early church, which serves as the model for the church today, that there were times of persecution from without. We see the arrest of the Apostles after healing the lame man in chapter 3 and in Chapter 5. We hear of the arrest of James and Peter. We see Saul of Tarsus and the bloody persecution of the church before his conversion, And so on. But we should also notice the disruptions which threatened the unity of the early church. We see Ananias and Sapphira and their attempted fraud. They tried to claim that they gave all the proceeds of a sale of property and were struck dead just like Achan and his family were killed for their fraud at Jericho. This was a far more insidious threat. There were those both in and out of the church who knew how much the property was actually sold for. When this would have come to life it would have badly damaged the witness of the early church as well as causing dissent in the church by their hypocrisy. Others might have been tempted to do likewise. This would have been the source of a bad tradition . There were other such temptations such as the dispute between the Greek-speaking and Aramaic-speaking widows and the incorporation of the Gentiles without requiring circumcision. So, perils from without and perils coming from within need to be guarded against in the Church.
During the immanent transition between the first and second generation of Scriptures which was occuring in perilous time, Paul strictly admonishes Timothy to be on guard. He must do the work of an evangelist, which is half of the Great Commission. The Gospel message must be guarded against those who would pervert the Gospel message. Paul had to deal with this in Galatia, which is understood by many scholars to include the area of Lystra and Derbe from which Timothy came. After Paul had evangelized the area, there came other “evangelists” who said that in order to be a Christian, or at least a Christian in better standing, must be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses. Paul directly attacked this false Gospel, pronouncing an anathema on this perverted “gospel” which was not good news at all. Now at the end on Paul’s ministry, false gospels such as a form of Gnosticism was becoming a threat.
The answer to this is to preach the only Gospel which was preached by the Apostles, and nothing but the Gospel. The Gospel doctrine is set firmly upon Scripture which was in the process of the completion of the New Testament as well as what we call the Old Testament.
Evangelism is the means of reaching people without the Church. The second half of the Great Commission is discipleship which is teaching the Church to observe everything the Lord Jesus commanded. A sound Church cannot exist without discipleship. Discipleship must be based upon Scripturally based and sound doctrine. Timothy is charged to complete his ministry. This same charge would be passed from Timothy’s generation to the next, then from the third generation to the next, and so on until this day. When the times are less perilous, we are urged to be diligent in this work, for perilous times are going to come if they are not here already. We seem to be seeing an increase in persecution of the Church. I can’t say for sure that this is the very last days before the Lord comes or not. But what we must not do is to leave off the training of the next generation because we think that this is the very last generation. Jesus said that we are to occupy until he comes. We must understand that this does not mean to occupy the church pew. Rather it means to be busy doing what the Lord commanded, the Lord who has all authority in heaven and earth. He has promised to be with us until the end of the age, even in perilous times.
We don’t know what Paul thought about the day that the Lord would return. I would suppose a good case could be made that Paul at least at some time may have thought so, as did the other Apostles. What if he just preached the immediate second coming in the light of the perils of the time? There would be no need to transmit the faith to the next generation. Rather, one would think that all effort should be made to evangelize those outside the church. Evangelism is vital. It deserves a great deal of attention. But so does discipleship based upon sound doctrine. So we do both. Some, like Paul,evangelized. Apollos, watered, this is nurtured. God gives the increase.
We live in a world where many pastors and evangelists have compromised sound doctrine and discipleship. They want to increase the numbers on the roll as well as the budget of the church, as though this was the means to a successful church. The preachers preach to people’s “felt needs” rather than to preach the pure Gospel of the Apostles. Shortcuts are made for Church membership. Cheap grace and a loving God who will not judge. Preaching to felt needs is the same as tickling itching ears. We need in season and out of season stick to the full Gospel without compromise. We need to pass this down to the next generation of Christians just like Paul admonishes Timothy.
