2 Timothy 2:14–26

2:14 The initial imperative “remind” invites us to consider two questions. First, who are the “them” in this verse? Second, of what is Timothy to remind them? It is possible that “remind them” means “remind Christians in general.” But the focus on how their words affect “hearers” probably means that Paul has teachers and church leaders particularly in mind. If so, “them” refers to the “faithful men” of verse 2 who are to “teach others also.” Thus Timothy is to remind these faithful men of everything Paul has said in verses 3–13.

Paul tells Timothy not merely to remind but to command: “Charge them before God not to quarrel about words.” At first glance, this command may confuse some readers. How are they to confront false teachers (as Paul has told them to do) if they are not to “quarrel about words”? Is defending the faith against false teaching not by definition a quarrel about words? The word translated “quarrel” is a compound that literally means “word-war” (logomachein). The “word” portion of that compound appears three more times in this one paragraph (vv. 15, 17, 18). As these verses make clear, “word” refers to what is taught either by faithful pastors or by unfaithful false teachers. Thus the term “word-war” is not referring to “hairsplitting” the definition of terms (contra BDAG). Paul is not reproving a quibble over semantics. In this case, the word-war refers to a word-war against truth; a war on the Word of God itself. If this is true, then the “word warriors” are false teachers who are teaching against God’s truth. That is why Paul tells Timothy never to do so (v. 14) but to handle accurately the word of truth (v. 15). Such false teaching is not only useless (it “does no good”) but it also leads to the spiritual corruption of those who hear and believe it.

2:15 “Rightly handling” comes from the Greek term orthotomeō. English readers may recognize the prefix ortho- from our English word “orthodox.” In this term, however, the prefix simply means “straight” and is added to a verb meaning “to cut” (temnō). The term is used in Proverbs 3:6 to refer to how God makes our paths straight. So here it likely means something along the lines of “to cut a straight path.” On that reading, the term would denote a need to “guide the word of truth along a straight path (like a road that goes straight to its goal), without being turned aside by wordy debates or impious talk” (BDAG). And so handling the Word of God rightly requires a fixed determination to stay on point, to explain and apply God’s Word according to its meaning and intent.

Paul’s exhortation to the pastor Timothy is the exhortation for every pastor: handle the Word of God rightly. The “word of truth” certainly refers to the gospel, which was anticipated in the OT and is now made known in the preaching of the apostles. Timothy may not play fast and loose with God’s revelation but must handle it with care and accuracy. It is not permissible for Timothy to say whatever comes to mind; he is to make known and to apply only what God has said. He is not to be an innovator of new revelation; he is an expositor of a revelation already given.

It is noteworthy that the main command of this verse is not to be one “rightly handling the word of truth” but rather to “do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed.” That is the primary command and thus the ultimate goal of Timothy’s ministry. Timothy must acknowledge that his primary audience is God, who hears and knows and who will judge every word from Timothy’s mouth.

2:16–17 Timothy is to avoid “irreverent babble”—he must steer clear of profane “talk that has no value” (BDAG, s.v. κενοφωνία). Paul warns Timothy to shun godless talking that serves no good purpose. This “irreverent babble” is precisely the kind of “word-warring” that Paul has been warning against, and it must be avoided at all costs, for two reasons. First, it corrupts God’s people: “It will lead people into more and more ungodliness.”

Second, such talk has the spiritual effect of killing God’s people: “Their talk will spread like gangrene.” It infects the body, destroys the tissue, and spreads until it kills the organism. The faithful pastor, therefore, must help God’s people to avoid such teaching.

Among those responsible for spreading this deadly teaching are two men, Hymenaeus and Philetus. We know very little about Philetus outside of this text; Hymenaeus is mentioned also in 1 Timothy 1:20, which names him as a false teacher. Paul says in 1 Timothy that he had handed Hymenaeus over to Satan so that he may learn not to blaspheme. This “[handing] over to Satan” is the language of church discipline and excommunication (cf. comment on 1 Tim. 1:20; cf. 1 Cor. 5:5). Even though we know very little about Philetus, his pairing with Hymenaeus suggests that his transgression is the same as Hymenaeus’s; evidently both are guilty of propounding grievous error.

2:18 Far from handling accurately the word of truth (v. 15), Hymenaeus and Philetus have “swerved from the truth” by teaching that the resurrection has already occurred. They were likely teaching that believers have already achieved resurrection in a spiritual sense as Christians and thus should not expect a future resurrection of the body at the last judgment. The implication of this teaching is that when a Christian dies, his spirit continues while his body does not. Perhaps the false teachers were basing this teaching on things they heard Paul say. If Paul’s letters are any indication, it is not hard to see how some might distort his words to imply that Paul had a low view of the body and of God’s creation (e.g., Rom. 6:11; Eph. 2:6; Col. 2:12).

The false teachers may have been taking a real truth and twisting it beyond what Paul meant. Yes, Paul said that in one sense we have already been raised with Christ, but he also says that in another sense we are not yet raised. We have been given new life through the Spirit, but we are not yet raised in glorified bodies. The stakes are high in this particular bit of false teaching; to deny the resurrection is to miss the faith altogether (cf. 1 Corinthians 15).

Hymenaeus and Philetus are “upsetting the faith of some.” The term translated “upsetting” is the word John uses to describe Jesus’ overturning the tables of the moneychangers in the temple (John 2:15). The term can mean to “cause to fall” or even to “destroy.” In this text, there is a figurative extension of the term that indicates a spiritual destruction of a person’s faith in Christ. The term means to “jeopardize someone’s inner well-being” and even to “ruin” them (BDAG, s.v. ἀνατρέπω, italics original; cf. Titus 1:11). Again, Paul could not be any clearer about the serious nature of this particular bit of false teaching.

2:19 In contrast to the failing faith of those under the spell of false teaching, “God’s firm foundation stands.” Paul uses “foundation” here and elsewhere as a metaphor for the apostolic gospel (1 Cor. 3:10–12). The gospel is like a foundation because God’s people build their life and faith upon it; they find in it their meaning and purpose in life. The gospel undergirds everything; it defines how God’s people live and relate to one another. How sturdy can this foundation be if false teachers infiltrate the ranks of the faithful? Yet the foundation stands; false teachers may advance temporarily, but the gospel will always come roaring back. The gospel will not be thwarted ultimately by false teachers. The foundation will hold.

The foundation stands not because of what people do to maintain it but because of what God has done. The foundation stands because it bears a “seal.” A seal is the mark or impression made by some sort of signet—perhaps a ring. Wax would be used to seal a document, and a signet would be pressed to make an impression on the wax. The resulting inscription on the seal would thus indicate ownership. The seal here is a metaphor for God’s guarantee of ownership. Inscribed on this seal is not God’s name but his promises, consisting of two verses from Numbers 16: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”

These two verses appear in the context of the narrative of Korah’s rebellion in Numbers 16. Even though false teachers were in the midst of Israel (Korah in this case), they would not threaten the foundation God had already laid. Why? Not because of Moses and Aaron’s efforts but because of God’s efforts. The Lord knows those who are his and shows them the path of escape. This path involves fleeing from evil, which God’s people do. “God knows and chooses his people, and they manifest that reality by abstaining from evil.”¹

2:20–21 God knows how to tell the difference between those who are his people and those who are not. Timothy must be able to do the same. He and the congregation must be able to distinguish the sheep from the wolves. Just as God showed the congregation of Israel that they should back away from Korah and his supporters, Paul tells Timothy to “depart” from false teachers (v. 19). Timothy and the congregation will have to call out false teaching for what it is and stand apart from it.

To illustrate this truth, Paul uses the image of a “great house” filled with “vessels” that are valuable and others that are not. There are vessels of “gold and silver” and of “wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable.” The “great house” is the Christian community in a broad sense. Within the Christian community are some “vessels” for honorable use and others for dishonorable use. “Wood and earthenware vessels are regarded as dishonorable because they are used for garbage or excrement and are sometimes thrown out with their contents.”² The false teachers are like those dishonorable vessels: they are carrying filthy contents and are at risk of being thrown out of the household altogether. Indeed, the congregation has an obligation to turn them out if they fail to repent of their false teaching.

The children of Israel were commanded to separate themselves from Korah or else share in his destruction. Verse 21 indicates that God’s people must “cleanse” themselves from the false teachers: the church should put the false teachers under discipline. If false teachers do not repent, they must be excommunicated. Such false teachers compromise the witness of the church; they are not holy and are not useful “for every good work.”

2:22 “So” is an inferential conjunction. Because of the need for holiness (vv. 20–21), Timothy must “flee” that which would make him unholy. In verse 22, the unholiness from which he must flee is “youthful passions.” Other translations render “passions” more specifically as sexual passion or lust (NASB, KJV, NLT).

Some commentators observe that the context is addressing false teaching and thus do not interpret “youthful desires” sexually. Rather, they argue that these “youthful desires” have to do with those desires that motivate the false teachers in their error. Still others claim that “youthful desires” refers to “youthful sins of judgment and temperament”;³ “sexual lust does not seem to be the focus.”⁴ But this is too narrow a reading of the term translated “passions” in the ESV.

Commentators often miss the use of this term elsewhere that informs Paul’s use of it here. The word translated “passions” in the ESV is the Greek word epithymia, a term that simply means “desire.” It refers to the human experience of longing or craving for something, which motivates people to make the decisions they make. Paul provides a chapter-long meditation on what he means by this term epithymia in Romans 7. A literal translation illustrates the connection: “I would not have known about desire except that the law was saying, ‘You shall not desire’” (Rom. 7:7). Paul would not even have known about desire unless the Mosaic law had explained it. And then he quotes Exodus 20:17, the tenth commandment. Thus Paul’s understanding of epithymia is defined by the tenth commandment: “You shall not covet [or “desire”] your neighbor’s house; you shall not [desire] your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s” (Ex. 20:17).

When Paul singles out the tenth commandment in Romans 7, he does so because it may very well be the hardest of all the commandments. Whereas the other commandments address our deeds, the tenth commandment addresses our desires. According to this commandment, desires are not neutral. The desire for something sinful—anything sinful, sexual or otherwise—is itself sinful. It is not merely adultery or stealing or killing that are sinful—the desire for such things is also sinful. Desires commensurate with such deeds are themselves sinful. This is Paul’s understanding of epithymia.

When Paul instructs Timothy to “flee youthful passions,” he uses the same term he uses in Romans 7, the same term used in the Greek version of the tenth commandment. The desire Timothy must flee, therefore, is any desire for something God has forbidden. It is not limited to illicit sexual desire, but it certainly includes illicit sexual desire.

But why does Paul use the term “youthful”? He is not saying that these forbidden desires are experienced only by young people. The desires are “youthful” in the sense that they are undisciplined. Maturity and experience usually have a moderating effect on the way in which people encounter their desires. The younger and less experienced a person is, the less self-control they bring to their desires.

Paul also commands Timothy to “pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace.” Paul often exhibits a “put off”/“put on” balance in his ethical exhortation. For Paul, being a Christian is not just about being against something; it is also about being for something. In this case, he calls Timothy to shun evil desire and to pursue its opposite instead: righteousness, faith, love, and peace. Three out of the four virtues in the list appear as fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22–23. When Paul commands Timothy to pursue these things, therefore, he is not calling him to do so alone; he is calling him to what the Spirit of God is already working inside him (Phil. 2:12–13). Timothy’s active pursuit of holiness is not at odds with grace; his active striving against sin is not legalism. Timothy’s effort to be holy reveals the work of the Spirit in him. The absence of striving would be evidence of the absence of the Spirit. Timothy must not simply stop doing the bad things; he must start pursuing the good things. He is not pursuing abstractions; he is pursuing God.

Timothy must pursue these things “along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” There is something precious here. Timothy need not pursue these things alone. He must pursue them along with a group of other people who are also pursuing the same things—i.e., the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Such persons call on the Lord “from a pure heart.” These believers are not calling on the Lord from an impure or hypocritical heart; they are not those who say one thing while doing another. They are striving to walk with Christ in integrity and holiness, encouraging one another toward the same goal (Heb. 10:23–25).

2:23 Timothy is to “have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies.” It is one thing for a pastor to confront false teaching threatening his own congregation; it is another thing to give a platform to false teachings that are not threatening that particular congregation. It is not worth getting into the fray of every controversy. To air out polemics in the pulpit with no concern for the needs of the particular congregation under one’s care is pastoral malpractice. Unnecessary polemics can stir up strife where before there was none.

2:24 Timothy is not to be “quarrelsome” but rather “kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil.” It matters not only that Timothy contends for the faith but also how he contends. If he is angry and pugnacious instead of kind, no one will listen to him (cf. Prov. 15:1–2; 16:21). He must “patiently [endure] evil,” not avenging personal slights but defending the truth of God and advancing his mission.

2:25–26 Paul mentions another aim, one that will not even be on the radar if Timothy is merely seeking to win an argument. He must be “correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” Timothy’s refutation of false teaching is first and foremost a way of protecting the sheep, but it may also be a means of persuading his opponents. Timothy must communicate persuasively, commending the gospel to the false teachers with the hope that they might repent and be won back to the faith.