Possibly he did appoint them; but there is no scriptural proof of it. "Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.". Note, It is not enough to learn that which is good, but we must continue in it, and persevere in it unto the end. From childhood he has been guided by the Scriptures, and his faith in those Scriptures gives him assurance in his salvation (14-15). He who feeds his mind on cheap literature can in the end find nothing in the great masterpieces. But the phrase may mean any future time, whether near or distant. That the scripture has various uses, and answers divers ends and purposes: It is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction of all errors in judgment and practice, and for instruction in righteousness. Jewish thought had one basic conception. It begets a contempt of men which can issue in hurting actions and in wounding words. But let not a man who will do this, suppose that he has any claim to be numbered among the martyrs, or even entitled to the Christian name. VERSION, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. Seeking the Gospel in Malachi, the Last Book of the Old Testament. God is right. It is interesting that the Scriptures in many places speak of the last days and in every case where the Scriptures speak of the last days, you find that it is an apt description of the day and the age in which we live. He went home and found the fire was out. Timothy was well aware of this, even before he joined Paul in his work. "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise." If we consult the scripture, which was given by inspiration of God, and follow its directions, we shall be made men of God, perfect, and thoroughly furnished to every good work. Of course it was infinitely higher, it is needless to say, in the Master; but the servant was as closely as possible following in His steps. Only here and Titus 2:12. The braggart is a swaggering creature, who tries to bluster his way into power and eminence. There were false teachers who were quick to take advantage of that. The moment a man makes his own will the centre of life, divine and human relationships are destroyed, obedience to God and charity to men both become impossible. There was the road from the south which centred the trade of the Maeander valley in Ephesus. In Greek writings these two words often went together; and they are both picturesque. The difference between the braggart and the man who is arrogant is this. Men will be lovers of their own selves ( 2 Timothy 3:2 ). No man can teach what he does not know, and therefore before a man can teach Christ to others he must know him himself. It is the attitude which bears with everything men can do and refuses to be either angry or embittered, and which will never seek anything but their highest good. So you see, I'm not inerrant in all, but the scriptures are. "To Timothy, my dearly-beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. They must not lie by us neglected, and seldom or never looked into. It is true that these things happened before the young Timothy had definitely entered on the Christian way, but they all happened in the district of which he was a native; and he may well have been an eyewitness of them. 3:1 You must realize this--that in the last days difficult times will set in. And so there comes that point where they will proceed no further: "their folly becomes manifest to all men", as Jannes and Jambres also was. One only meets Satan when traveling in an opposite direction! for instruction in righteousness ( 2 Timothy 3:16 ): And righteousness is just actually the act of being right or doing right or living right. In the Testament of Issachar, one of the books written between the Old and the New Testaments, we get a picture like this: "Know ye, therefore, my children, that in the last times. The world is full of these braggarts to this day; the clever know-all's who deceive people into thinking that they are wise, the politicians who claim that their parties have a program which will bring in the Utopia and that they alone are born to be leaders of men, the people who crowd the advertisement columns with claims to give beauty, knowledge or health by their system, the people in the Church who have a kind of ostentatious goodness. The word here is makrothumia ( G3115) ; and makrothumia, as the Greeks used it, usually meant patience with people. Now this is not given to us in the Scriptures but there are other, what are known as apocryphal books, in which these two fellows are named. If, in any manner, or in any way, he is subjected to disadvantage on account of his religious opinions, and deprived of any immunities and rights to which he would be otherwise entitled, this is persecution. Compare the catalogue, Ro 1:29, &c., where much the same sins are attributed to heathen men; it shall be a relapse into virtual heathendom, with all its beast-like propensities, whence the symbol of it is "a beast" (Re 13:1, 11, 12, &c.; 17:3, 8, 11). The coming of the Lord will in no way manifest the faithfulness of the servant; His appearing will. All that live according to the will of God revealed in his word; and to the glory of God, as the end of all their actions; and which the grace of God in the Gospel, and in their own hearts, teaches them; and who have the principles of a godly life from Christ, and derive the fresh supplies of grace and life from him, to maintain it; in whom their God wants us each to take His power, His love, and His calm thinking and overcome fear, to be used of Him with all the gifts He gives. "Follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Here is one of the most terrible pictures in the New Testament of what a godless world would be like, with the terrible qualities of godlessness set out in a ghastly series. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord" (there must, I suppose, have been some ground for the exhortation), "nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel, according to the power of God; who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." Christian life is a life of purpose. Christ's apostles had no enemies but those who did not know them, or not know them fully; those who knew them best loved and honoured them the most. This is a further reason why Timothy should endure hardship and not turn aside from the work God has given him (3-5). (4.) In these terrible days men would be braggarts and arrogant. Truth and holiness and endurance are wanted, not authority or outward order. Friday evenings, you know, everybody out looking for their weekend companion, incontinent, no sexual restraints. (1) To exhort Timothy in his ministry at Ephesus; (2) To warn Timothy of trouble both inside and outside the church; (3) To request Timothy to come to Rome to visit him in prison and bring certain personal effects to him (4:5-13; 21); and (4) To instruct all the churches in Timothy's territory. ( 2 Timothy 3:1) Perilous times in the last days . (2 Timothy 1:1.) In 2 Timothy 3:9 he meant that the teaching of evil does not necessarily become more extensive and capture a wider audience as evil becomes worse. I've never found that in one of those little Bible promise books, I mean, promise things yet. "And God prepared a great fish and it swallowed Jonah" ( Jonah 1:17 ). Let me remark, that there are comparatively few indeed that receive truth without help of others directly from God. The oldest Greek laws disfranchised the man who struck his parents; to strike a father was in Roman law as bad as murder; in the Jewish law honour for father and mother comes high in the list of the Ten Commandments. Regardless of the persecution, it is our duty to live in such a way that the world will know that we are Christians. What use it will be of to us. These were the names given to the court magicians of Pharaoh who opposed Moses and Aaron, when Moses was leading the children of Israel out of their slavery in Egypt. "Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God." God takes care of His people, and ensures them a blessed end. ", The Lord said it's "what comes out of the mouth of a man, that defiles a man" ( Matthew 15:11 ). All that will live godly So opposite to the spirit and practice of the world is the whole of Christianity, that he who gives himself entirely up to God, making the Holy Scriptures the rule of his words and actions, will be less or more reviled and persecuted. And as we go down the list, it's like reading the afternoon newspaper. She doesn't have the time to prepare the meal on Friday evening and we'll go out on Friday night. Nor do I at all see that any Christians should be above learning, if others can teach. First and foremost he has an aim in life. What Does It Really Mean That Your Body Is a Temple? false accusers, incontinent ( 2 Timothy 3:3 ). The Greek moralists wrote much about this word. This chapter has a vivid description of the great apostasy (2 Timothy 3:1-9), signs of which were already present, an appeal to Paul's own inspiring and inspired example (2 Timothy 3:10-15), and one of the most impressive paragraphs in all the Bible with reference to the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:16,17).For more extensive discussion of the apostasy, the man of . The persecutions today may not be the same Paul had to withstand, but persecutions of some type will confront us from time to time. And he embraced Christianity, but he was probably standing there in Lystra when the people in the city stoned Paul until they thought he was dead and dragged him out of the city. The defeat of error depends not on skill in controversy but in the demonstration in life of the more excellent way. It would not be accordant with the mind of God. This present age was altogether evil; and the age to come would be the golden age of God. The Christian emancipation of women inevitably brought its problems. It is easy for a professed Christian to avoid persecution, if he yields every point in which religion is opposed to the world. It is the sign of a man of honour that he pays his debts; and for every man there is a debt to God and there are debts to his fellow-men, which he must remember and repay. They will be inflated with a sense of their own importance. Be assured, that if you do not bring the Spirit of God into these matters, perhaps your cloak, perhaps a book, will become a snare to you. The Jewish Rabbis ranked high in the list of sins what they called the sin of insult. "That thou hast had good teachers. The technique would be the same in the days of Timothy as it was in the later days of Irenaeus. A book with a record such as it has cannot be disregarded. 2 Timothy 3:12, NLT: Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. In between there was The Day of the Lord, a day when God would personally intervene and shatter the world in order to remake it. Yet most people today have never heard of John Gill. "And in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.". By it we are thoroughly furnished for every good work. Originally the alazon ( G213) was a wandering quack. [Note: Knight, p. It answers not a little to the kind of thing ,;et forth here. Those ministers are likely to do good, and leave lasting fruits of their labours, whose manner of life agrees with their doctrine; as, on the contrary, those cannot expect to profit the people at all that preach well and live ill. 3. Word Studies in the New Testament. What I believe, I believe because God has said it. What Paul is thinking of here is more than faithlessness in friendship--although that in all truth is wounding enough--he is thinking of those who to pay back an old score would inform against the Christians to the Roman government. At the same time he shows also his sense of the kindness of a particular individual and his family. On account of his opinions, he may be held up to ridicule, or treated with neglect, or excluded from society to which his attainments and manners would otherwise introduce him, or shunned by those who might otherwise value his friendship. This was always the becoming tone; but now it is imperiously necessary, as well as wise and good. The kind of guys that went around selling snake oil or cure-alls, deceiving, defrauding people. Paul regarded these as man-made things; but the great books for a man's soul were the God-inspired ones which tradition and the experience of men had sanctified. It will be getting better a little further down the road, but evil days are going to wax worse and worse, until the Lord takes His church out and then God judges the world for its unrighteousness and ungodliness. At the same time He will have them undividedly for Himself; and He is also jealous of the way in which they seek even the ends of God. Others must do that kind of work in future. And so Paul said to Timothy, "You have fully known". Easy it seems to get sort of distracted and off course. Luke recorded the very words spoken on the mission field long ago, "Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22); and, in the words of White, "Consistency in the life of Christ must necessarily be always opposed by the world. But we, so often, make the mistake of going out ill-equipped or running without a message. It is undoubtedly true at all times, and will ever be, that they who are devoted Christians - who live as the Saviour did - and who carry out his principles always, will experience some form of persecution. The early Church lived in an age when the time was waxing late; they expected the Second Coming at any moment. James encourages us by explaining that those who persevere under trial, on the journey to maturity, will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him, and He exhorts us to consider it all joy, when we encounter various trials.There is an urgency in this final letter thatPaul wrote before his death, to remind us that ALL who live godly lives in Christ will certainly suffer persecution. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God. Things were so bad that Tacitus could say: "He who had no foe was betrayed by his friend." It is said that, after hearing an evangelical sermon, Lord Melbourne once remarked: "Things have come to a pretty pass when religion is allowed to invade the sphere of private life." His answer was: "That which will be most useful to them when they are men." More and more the Christian is a marked person because the more corrupt the world becomes, the more the Christian stands out.
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