2 Timothy 2:1–2. You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. (ESV)
Horrifically, some years ago, two teenagers were discovered in an attic room chained to their beds, where they had been confined since early childhood. They were totally disoriented and almost animalistic in behavior. They had been undernourished and unloved, and, as would be expected, were underdeveloped in every way—physically, emotionally, socially, and mentally. They were the product of child abuse at its most malevolent extreme.
Equally tragic is the condition of many children of God today who are undernourished spiritually and, consequently, are underdeveloped, confused, disoriented, and immature in the things of the Lord. There is much activity, but little spiritual fruit; much talk about Christianity, but little conviction; high moral proclamations, but little accountability; doctrinal creeds, but much compromise.
Spiritual weakness makes both leaders and congregations subject to almost every religious fad, no matter how frivolous. Like an undernourished and anemic physical body, they have little resistance to disorders and maladies that weaken them still further. And because they have no resources but their own, the smallest difficulty is distressing. Because they have so little understanding of and confidence in the Word of God, they turn to psychological bandages and worldly solutions. They have little defense against Satan and are easy prey for false teachers. They are spiritual “children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming” (Eph. 4:14; cf. Heb. 13:9). Because they have left “the elementary teaching about the Christ,” and failed to “press on to maturity” (Heb. 6:1), they may even find themselves “paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1). Spiritual weakness also can come from fatigue, frustration, and seemingly insurmountable obstacles in the Lord’s work.
The Apostle Paul begins describing The Elements of a Strong Spiritual Life, in four segments starting with 1) The Command to Be Strong (2 Timothy 2:1a), 2) The Counsel to be Strong (2 Timothy 2:1b), 3) The Calling of Others to be Strong (2 Timothy 2:2a) and the 4) The Continuance of Others being Strong (2 Timothy 2:2b)
The Elements of a Strong Spiritual Life, start with:
1) The Command to Be Strong (2 Timothy 2:1a)
2 Timothy 2:1a. You then, my child, be strengthened (by the grace that is in Christ Jesus), (ESV)
Please turn back a chapter to 2 Timothy 1 (also on p.935)
In 2 Timothy 2:1, Paul gives the Command to be strong in the directive: “You then, my child, be strengthened”. (2:1a) Timothy was facing a time of spiritual vacillation and weakness. He may have been questioning his calling or his gifts or the sufficiency of God’s provision. He was mired in difficulties of some sort and could not extricate himself.
In 2 Timothy 1:1-16 we see that whatever the particulars, Paul realized that his son in the faith needed “to kindle afresh the gift of God which” was in him. He said:
2 Timothy 1:1-10. 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus, 2 To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Guard the Deposit Entrusted to You 3 I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4 As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, 9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, 10 and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,
• We will return to chapter 1
• Timothy did not need more from God but needed to use, with commitment and confidence, the divine provisions he already possessed. He needed to remember and to exercise the “power and love and discipline” (v. 7) that the Holy Spirit had provided him and provides every believer. He needed to discard his being ashamed of “the testimony of the Lord” and to be willing to join Paul in “suffering for the gospel according to the power of God” (v. 8).
The Elements of a Strong Spiritual Life, also include
2) The Counsel to be Strong (2 Timothy 2:1b)
2 Timothy 2:1b. (You then, my child, be strengthened) by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, (ESV)
Summing up that counsel, in 2 Timothy 2:1a, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The verb be strengthened/strong is an imperative, making it a command. Yet it is a command tempered by Paul’s deep love for Timothy, his son. There was tenderness in Paul’s heart because there is tenderness in God’s heart. Even the Lord’s strongest commands are given in love. He admonishes His children firmly but lovingly, and that is the way Paul admonished his spiritual son Timothy. Because Timothy had “sincere faith” and was nourished in that faith by his godly mother and grandmother (1:5), because he was specially gifted by God and ordained by the laying on of Paul’s hands (1:6) and the hands of the Ephesian elders (1 Tim. 4:14), and because of the abundant resources mentioned in the remainder of chapter 1, Timothy had no reason for not being strengthened/strong. Paul was saying to Timothy, “My son, the Lord’s work in Ephesus depends on you, its divinely appointed and divinely endowed minister.” The effectiveness of his ministry depended not simply in his having that call and those resources but in his faithfully using them in God’s power and to God’s glory. It is an amazing paradox, but fully biblical, that, although God is sovereign and all-powerful, He nevertheless entrusts His adopted children with propagating the saving gospel of His true Son, Jesus Christ.
Please turn to the book of Jude (p.964)
The verb be strengthened/strong is also passive, however, indicating that the source of Timothy’s strength was not in himself but by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Just as we are saved solely “by grace … through faith; and that not of [ourselves, but by] the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8), we also are kept saved by the grace of God, who “is faithful and righteous [to continue] to forgive us our sins and [to continue] to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Our only effective spiritual strength is “in the Lord, and in the strength of His might” (Eph. 6:10).
To be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, we must build ourselves up in the “most holy faith. Jude explains how to do this in his call to persevere in verses 17-23.
Jude 17-23. 17 But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” 19 It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. 20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 22 And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. (ESV)
• Jude is warning here of critics who come from within a congregation, having become part of the church by clandestine means and acting as if they were true Christians (cf. Jude 3–4, 19). But they are led astray by following their subjective feelings and ungodly passions that are contrary to the Word of God (cf. v. 8). The way to minimize the influence of the scoffers is to live proactively as a follower of Christ (cf. “contend for the faith,” v. 3). Others who are caught up in immorality should also be shown mercy, but with fear, lest the faithful Christian be influenced for evil by the person he is trying to restore. (Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2451.)
God’s continuing grace in the lives of believers operates in justification and sanctification, in forgiveness and in holiness, and in His grace applied to our service. The same grace that forgives us and makes us holy is the grace that empowers us. Because we belong to Christ, we are continually in the sphere of grace. But to enjoy the sphere of blessing, we must live in the sphere of obedience.
The Elements of a Strong Spiritual Life, include
3) The Calling of Others to be Strong (2 Timothy 2:2a)
2 Timothy 2:2. 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, (who will be able to teach others also). (ESV)
The first stage in the spiritual “relay” was the truth being handed from Paul to Timothy, which the apostle describes here as Timothy’s careful receiving and studying what he has heard from Paul over the period of several years traveling with the apostle and of ministering with him in Ephesus.
In the presence of many witnesses carries the fuller idea of “supported by the confirming testimony of other teachers”—including the teaching of other apostles. Those witnesses certainly would have included Paul’s fellow preachers and teachers, such as Barnabas and Silas (cf. Acts 14:1–3, 21–22; 15:35; 20:4). Other well-taught leaders in the church such as Luke, a companion of Paul on many of his trips, also would have been qualified to confirm to Timothy the divine authenticity of Paul’s teaching. From the time he first met and began accompanying Paul (Acts 16:1–3), Timothy was exposed to the public teaching and private counsel of many godly witnesses in addition to Paul.
Please turn back to 2 Timothy 1 (p.935)
To the witnesses, there is a directive to entrust. Paratithemi (entrust) is here an imperative and carries the idea of depositing something valuable for safekeeping. It is a verb form of the noun (paratheke), used twice in the previous chapter, referring to the treasure Paul had entrusted to the Lord
2 Timothy 1:11-16. 11 for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, 12 which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. 13 Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14 By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. 15 You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. 16 May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, (ESV)
• Timothy needed, like the apostle, to be “convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day” (v. 12), to “retain the standard of sound words which [he had] heard from [Paul], in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus” (v. 13), to avoid faithless church members such as Phygelus and Hermogenes, and to identify with faithful believers such as Onesiphorus and those in his household (vv. 15–16).
Timothy’s assignment back in 2 Timothy 2:2, was to run the second lap, as it were, of this spiritual relay, in which he was to entrust the things he had been taught by Paul—that is, pass on the in-depth teaching of God’s Word—to faithful men under his care. That which he was to carefully guard (1:14: cf. 1 Tim. 6:20) he also was to carefully teach. That these individuals here are described as faithful (Pistos) which is a term is used later in this chapter of the trustworthiness of God’s promise that “if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him” (v. 11), and a few verses later of Christ Himself, who, even “if we are faithless, … remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself” (v. 13). In other words, this special entrustment is reserved for men whose character reflects the faithfulness of God’s own Word and of God’s own Son. In this context, faithful not only refers to spiritual character but to spiritual giftedness. God does not call every believer to be a teacher and a teacher of teachers. Paul knew Timothy had such giftedness (cf. 1:6) he here instructs him to find others who were so gifted and to teach them.
2 Timothy 2:2, shows how Believers in Christ can have a strong, obedient, spiritual life as seen through the analogy of the Teacher. Paul’s vision of discipleship is not classroom-based; it is generational. Four layers deep in one sentence: Paul ? Timothy ? faithful men ? others. This is not content transfer; it is life transfer. Discipleship that does not reproduce is incomplete. Knowledge alone does not form disciples. Imitation does. Paul does not tell Timothy to distribute notes; he tells him to entrust truth to faithful people who will carry it forward. The church becomes fragile when discipleship stops at personal growth. It becomes resilient when people see themselves as links in a chain rather than isolated endpoints. Every believer is discipled by someone and is discipling someone else, whether intentionally or accidentally. The apostles, some for only a brief time before they were martyred, proclaimed the gospel they had received from Christ to other faithful men—prophets, elders, deacons, and many others—among whom was Timothy. It was now Timothy’s turn to entrust the gospel, and all other divinely revealed truths, to others.
The discipleship metaphor here is that of a teacher teaching a teacher, who, in turn, teaches other teachers, who then teach still other teachers. Although Paul mentions only four generations of teachers, the idea is that of a continuing process. The New Testament neither teaches nor supports the idea of apostolic succession. But it does clearly teach, in this passage and elsewhere, that the gospel is to be promulgated from generation to generation. Jesus, of course, was the Master Teacher. He taught the apostles, who then taught others, who taught others, who are still teaching others, and so on throughout the church age. In every generation, God has raised up new links in this living chain of faithful men to pass on the good news of Jesus Christ to the people of their day. “The teacher is a link in the living chain which stretches unbroken from this present moment back to Jesus Christ. The glory of teaching is that it links the present with the earthly life of Jesus Christ” (William Barclay. The Letters to Timothy, Titus and Philemon [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1957], 182).
Finally, The Elements of a Strong Spiritual Life, includes:
4) The Continuance of Others being Strong (2 Timothy 2:2b)
2 Timothy 2:2b. 2 (and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men), who will be able to teach others also. (ESV)
Faithful men, who themselves have been carefully trained, are to teach others who show promise. This is just the start of a continuous process of spiritual reproduction, of being taught and of teaching, that is to continue until our Lord returns. The truth Paul is talking about here is beyond the basic gospel message of salvation, which is to be preached to all who will hear. He is rather talking about the careful, systematic training of church leaders who will teach and disciple other believers in the fullness of God’s Word. This particular ministry is to be selective. It is reserved for faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. He is directing Timothy to invest in the lives of spiritually devout men who are gifted to teach potential pastors and evangelists. Such men must already have proved their love for the Lord and their giftedness in His service. They must be prequalified by proven spiritual character and ability, as well as by fruitful labor.
Like Timothy, every preacher and teacher is to guard the purity and integrity of God’s Word. Some of those also are called to accurately and fully teach other godly leaders in the church. If the church is to be strong, its leaders must be strong. And leaders can become strong only if they are carefully built up in the Word of God. We all received the truth from faithful men before us, and we are to preserve it so that it is passed on accurately and fully to the next generation (cf. 1 Tim. 6:20; 2 Tim. 2:14).
In the charge to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2, take a look down beginning in verse 14, also on page 935, where Paul directs Timothy on how to be a worker approved by God:
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.” (ESV)
• What is prohibited here is meaningless argument. This regards quarreling over ideas that have no positive, practical impact on its adherents. Often when people become one issue arguers, the explicit Gospel imperatives are neglected and quarreling spreads throughout a congregation, impugning their testimony and failing in performing their duties.
On a more general level, the directives of 2 Timothy 2, should involve all believers, whatever their particular spiritual gifts might be. This responsibility applies especially to elders “who work hard at preaching and teaching” (1 Tim. 5:17). But parents, Sunday school teachers, and youth leaders also are responsible, to the best of their ability, to pass on God’s Word to those under their care. Every Christian has such a responsibility for any brother or sister in Christ whom they have the opportunity to disciple, even briefly. Therefore, we must ask ourselves who is forming you right now? Who are you intentionally forming? If the answer to either is “no one,” the chain is already weakening. Prayerfully identify at least one younger believer you can intentionally walk with. Commit to presence, not perfection.
Prayer: “Lord of the harvest, make me a faithful steward of what I’ve received. Teach me to pour into others, so the gospel may outlive me. Amen.”
(Format Note: Some base commentary from John F. MacArthur Jr., 2 Timothy, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1995), 35–49.)
041 Benediction: Dear friends, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him is glory both now and forever! Amen. (cf. 2 Peter 3:17, 18)
