August 17& 18, 2002
2 Timothy 2:14-19
Rust Proofing the Fellowship
The devil has many tactics. He may seek to destroy the truth by patronizing Christianity and Christians. He may try to do so by popularity -- by diverting the attention of Christians away from why they are sent into the world. He has destroyed many a Christian witness that way. He may, as we have been seeing in this letter, bring about sharp persecution; he may try to paralyze us by fear, and by societal rejection; or he may bring about a polarization, an attempt to divide the body. So says my friend Ray, but I have seen the same occur everywhere I have ever served. The Devil wil use whatever means at his disposal to destroy fellowship.
That is what we find introduced in this section, where the apostle is dealing with the two-front war that these Ephesian Christians are facing -- persecution from outside, and polarization from within the body.
Second Timothy 2:14: 2 Timothy 2:14-19
Small Print-P. 842; Large Print-P. 1854
14 Keep reminding them of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen. 15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 16 Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. 17 Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some. 19 Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows who are his,” and “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.
I came from relatively poor beginnings. The old expression, “Poor people have poor ways” is definitely true. Many of my friends in my early years were surprised that we had gravy at every meal. One of the uses of the gravy, regardless of what else we had on the table was to break slices of bread into little pieces and spread gravy all over it. I had grown up with that side dish and didn’t realize that this was mom’s way of making sure we had something that would fill us up. There was one other staple at our family meals and that was butter bread. I still love butter bread with my meals. You just take a slice of bread and smooth a thin coating of butter on it and you get (Eat it) butter bread. Voice from in back: Parkay. Me: No this is butter. Voice: Parkay. No, this is…(Look at tub) alright, this is…Parkay. Voice: Butter.
You all remember that advertising ploy don’t you? Madison Avenue realized a long time ago that you could garner a lot of attention by a word argument. They followed it up with the “Tastes great…Less Filling” advertisement. They have had ferrets, frogs and lizards fighting for dominance with “bud… Weis… er”. They go on and on. Well what Madison Avenue knows they got from their CEO the Devil. Words cause problems. We quarrel over words, we get others involved, everyone chooses up sides and then it’s Katie bar the door, the ruin of relationship and fellowship are just around the corner.
Those are very sharp and effective metaphors which the apostle employs to describe what was going on in the church at Ephesus. They were disputing about words; there were church squabbles breaking out, and they were dividing into factions over what the apostle literally calls, word battles. That is the meaning of the term translated here, "disputing about words." Many churches fall into that trap today. The words in question, of course, represented doctrinal viewpoints. The church has often struggled with trying to define doctrine in words. The words themselves are all right, but what is wrong is the battles that are waged over the words.
One of the outstanding examples in church history in this regard occurred during the days of the Reformation. Toward the end of his life, Martin Luther became engaged in a controversy with the Swiss Christians over the meaning of the Lord’s words, "This is my body," when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. Those words became the subject of a great controversy that split the force of the Reformation. Under Martin Luther’s teaching, the Lutherans maintained that those words were to be taken literally (that the bread really becomes, or is, the body of Christ), while the Swiss Christians maintained that the words were a figurative expression (that the words meant, "this represents my body"). Both sides argued at great length, and the Reformation was almost brought to a halt by the controversy.
In an attempt to heal the dispute, Count von Zwingli, the leader of the Swiss group, brought a delegation to Germany to meet with Martin Luther. When Luther entered the room where the meeting was to take place, he strode over to the large table, and, taking a piece of chalk, he wrote across the length of the table the Latin words, Hoc est corpus meum ("This is my body"). That was his stand. Whenever the other side tried to enter into discussion, Luther would refuse and again quote the words, Hoc est corpus meum. The controversy was not settled, and the Reformation was severely limited as a result.
Paul warns Timothy that word battles are a gangrene. Gangrene is an infection of the bloodstream that not only spreads rapidly through the body, but smells horribly. Foul, suppurating wounds keep increasing in size, so that it is one of the most difficult problems to handle, medically. God’s view of a church squabble is that it spreads like gangrene. It smells bad, it spreads quickly, and a whole congregation can be infected by it. Since we are learning in this series to be “Built Lord Tough” and we are using the car metaphor’s I will tell you that these word battles are a rust that eats at the chassis and the body that we have laid in the past two weeks and rust is just as insidious as gangrene. What gangrene is to the body, rust is to a car or truck. The only way that you can assure healing for either one is to cut it out, separate it from healthy flesh or steel. However, in vehicles there is a preventative measure that can be taken, you can rustproof. There are four things that Paul tells Timothy that he can do about these word battles to “Rustproof the Fellowship.”
The first thing the apostle says is,
Remind them of this, and charge them before the Lord to avoid disputing about words. {2 Tim 2:14a RSV}
Timothy was to solemnly plead with them, earnestly reminding them that as brothers and sisters in the Lord they are not to engage in such battles.
As the Battle of Trafalgar was about to begin, Admiral Nelson came across two officers of his own flagship who were arguing hotly and about to take sword to each other. Nelson stepped between them and said, "Stop." Then, pointing to the French fleet, he said, "There is the enemy."
Christians need to remember that. We are not to be engaged in debates that get so intense and so hot that we forget what the Lord has sent us to do. Quarreling over words does no good, so Timothy was to plead earnestly with them to avoid such disputes. I have been present at several church quarrels, and it is very evident that it is true that no further light is ever shed when a controversy gets heated. Nobody is bringing out truth; they are simply hammering away at each other with the Bible. Division, not unity, comes out of that. No witness before the world is increased because of church squabbles, but quite the opposite. Further, Paul says, "it leads to catastrophe." The word ruins here ("only ruins the hearers"), is literally the word, "catastrophe." Church quarrels can lead to catastrophic events. Some years ago I read about a church that got into a major quarrel over whether to have a Christmas tree in the church building. One faction contended that Christmas trees were of pagan origin, so to have one in the church would be to yield to a pagan practice. The other group thought that having one was merely a pleasant custom which they had grown up with since childhood, and there was nothing wrong with the practice. That side got a tree, decorated it and set it up in the church basement. When the other faction arrived, they grabbed the tree, lights and all, and dragged it out into the parking lot. The other faction then took the tree and dragged it back into the church. A big fight resulted, right outside the church doors, and somebody had to call the police! The police came, and locked the doors, and all this was spread in the paper the next day.
That is the kind of foolish, silly catastrophe that can result when Christians engage in word battles that carry them much farther than they ever intended to go. Paul says to Timothy, "Remind them of that, and urge them solemnly to conduct themselves as Christians. Plead with them to stop disputings over words."
The second suggestion the apostle makes as to how to handle the incipient quarrel at Ephesus is, demonstrate a proper handling of the Scriptures. Paul says to Timothy, "Show them yourself how to do this." Here is one of those wonderful verses which we all ought to memorize. Verse 15:
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. {2 Tim 2:15 RSV}
The first thing Paul suggests is, "seek the approval of God, not men." Many a church quarrel is carried on because people are so conscious of what some group within the congregation thinks of them. Many church leaders succumb to that: They join one side or the other because of the pressure of some group upon them. Here the apostle urges Timothy to lift himself above that, to think only of God’s approval: "What does God think of what you are saying and what stance you take?" Timothy can tell that by the Word of God and by the presence of the Spirit of God. Does Timothy’s attitude reflect a loving, compassionate, understanding heart? That is what is characteristic of the Spirit of God.
Then, Timothy is to work hard at understanding the usage of the words of Scripture; that is what Paul means here. Timothy is to be a workman, a laborer, somebody who needs not be ashamed because he has done his homework adequately; he has investigated throughout the whole of the Scriptures what the words in question mean.
The third thing the apostle says to Timothy about handling church squabbles is in Verse 16:
Avoid such godless chatter, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will eat its way like gangrene. {2 Tim 2:16-17a RSV}
The word for avoid is really the word, "walk around." Skirt it; do not get involved; do not join the clamor; do not let yourself be down into these kinds of word battles because, if you get involved, it will only escalate the problem. "It will lead to more and more ungodliness," Paul says. The term he uses, which is translated here, godless chatter, is literally "empty babblings." That refers to people who shoot off their mouths, who talk off the top of their heads and display a lot of emotionalism. Paul tells Timothy to not get involved with that because it will escalate; it will lead to more and more "unwholesomeness," literally.
The last thing the apostle says is, remember God’s firm foundation. Verse 19:
But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: "The Lord knows those who are his," and "Let every one who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity." {2 Tim 2:19 RSV}
In other words, "Timothy, don’t panic over this. Yes, there may be heresy in the congregation, there may be dissension among you and you may have to do battle against it, but, remember, ’God’s firm foundation stands.’"
That is like a coin with two sides, God’s side and man’s side.On God’s side is, "The Lord knows them that are his." It is remarkable to recognize in the Gospels that Jesus knew that Judas was a traitor from the beginning. The Scriptures tell us that Jesus knew before he chose him that Judas was a devil. He knew those who were his, and those who were not his. Paul reminds us that God’s church is never going to be altered, shaken, or diminished, even by the heresies that may rage among us. God knows them that are his.
The other side of the coin is that man can know those who are God’s when he sees them departing from this kind of iniquity: false doctrine and false teaching among us. We can be confident that those who really are Christians will ultimately see the error that is involved, and leave it. That is where our faith can rest.
Both of those quotations in Verse 19 are taken from the story in the sixteenth chapter of the book of Numbers about the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. During Israel’s wandering through the wilderness, those three men challenged the authority of Moses, saying, "Why do you listen to Moses? He is no different than we are. We are men of understanding like Moses." Why don’t you listen to us, was their implication. Moses took the problem to the Lord, and the Lord said, "Bring them here. Let me give them an examination." Korah, Dathan and Abiram and their families all stood together. Suddenly, before the eyes of the whole congregation, the ground opened up, down they went into the pit and the ground slammed shut behind them. God said, "Any more questions?"
Yes, God knows them that are his. He has his own ways of dealing with this kind of thing. The apostle says that those who are genuine will depart from iniquity. That is the test of a true believer. There is a life in him that will not let him compromise himself with evil and iniquity forever. But there may be a long-term struggle. I have seen that happen, sometimes over a period of years, but God will not let them go on. They must leave the false teaching at last because they cannot live with themselves any longer. Speaking of certain apostates, the Apostle John said, "They went out from us that it might be evident that they were not of us, for if they had been of us they would have continued with us," {cf, 1 Jn 2:19}. That is the mark that will encourage Timothy.
To recapitulate, Paul tells Timothy that the way to handle disputes about words in the congregation is to plead with them for unity. First, he says, urge them before the Lord to remember who they are and to stop quarreling; second, labor for accuracy in understanding the Scriptures; third, avoid complicity with this; and, finally, do not panic; God is still in control. His firm foundation will stand, for God knows those who are his and they will manifest themselves sooner or later by departing from iniquity. That wonderful word of advice is how God urges us to “Rustproof the Fellowship.”
