Text: 2Timothy 2:20-26
2Ti 2:20 In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble.
2Ti 2:21 If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.
2Ti 2:22 Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
2Ti 2:23 Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.
2Ti 2:24 And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.
2Ti 2:25 Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth,
2Ti 2:26 and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.
Introduction
Continuously admonish Paul about the perseverance that he must have. Thus, the pursuance of the faith was never easy. It is easier to fall away than to be faithful to the Lord. It is even more attractive to be worldly and to be doing all we want without limitations.
However, doing all we want will never lead us to godliness but to things that are detestable in the eyes of the Lord. This is why Paul is sending Timothy a message to continue what he has started plus he is to do his additional instructions. And this part is continuous instruction in becoming a man with a noble purpose.
In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. How then are we to become a man with a noble purpose? How are we to become God’s instrument for his purpose?
Pursue Righteousness (v. 22)
The very first thing that Paul mentioned is to pursue righteousness by fleeing from the youthful evil desires. In other translations, they used the word youthful lust. Lust as a noun refers to “sexual desires”. There are lots of forms of sexual desires. Here are just some of the examples;
Homosexuality Premarital Sex Live In
Pornography Fornication Sex Orgies
While on the other hand, lust as a verb connotes “great desire” for something, cravings, and strong appetite for something. For example for the politicians who lust for power.
In the passage, both things are being addressed by Paul because any form of lust is definitely a sin and the word itself is always attributed to sinful acts.
Paul used the word “flee”. This signifies that these lustful desires are always present and continuously roaming around like a lion. He is also like a beautiful woman who tries to seduce a man where in this situation, it is very difficult to fight for what is right and it is indeed a very strong force that most Christians both men and women failed to stand.
Paul here is actually teaching us on how to work with this problem. Paul said, we have to “flee” from it. As I try to analyze the passage, I wonder why Paul did not say “fight” evil youthful desires, but instead he said “flee from” youthful desires. Here we see that fighting lust is a difficult, tedious, and most probably fighting it is like exposing ourselves to ruin.
We are to flee, which means to go to an opposite direction, to run away. This is what a Christian should do whenever he face temptations of lust, may it be in a noun form or in verb form.
The main problem with many Christians is that, instead of running away, they tried fighting against it, exposing themselves to strong temptations that caused them to fall away.
I still remember the story of a minister who tried to win women prostitutes from a prostitute den of a particular country claiming that he was called to minister them. His goal is to redeem them from the worldly lust. However, instead of winning them, he end up going with them and having sexual contact with them, thus destroying his ministry, his reputation, and his family.
The Bible is clear in its instruction, we are not to indulge ourselves into it and fight it, but we are to flee. This is not a show of being afraid against sins, but a show of strategic way in facing it.
Pursue Faith (v. 23)
Again, we are not to debate, instead we are to hold the faith that we first received from the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead of focusing on debate, we are to pursue the faithfulness in the Lord. We are to see ourselves as people who obey the Lord in doing godliness and righteousness and sharing it to others who need it.
We are to work hard in our obedience to our Lord. We are to watch ourselves to become a good soldier, athlete and farmer. We are to share the gospel to others as the Bible gave a strong emphasis in evangelism and reaching the Lost.
Faith is a very huge topic to discuss, but in this particular context, we can see that the emphasis is against false teachings. Again, false teachings can cause division in the church to which we need to be more vigilant against “seems to be” right doctrine.
Just like what the message told us last Sunday, we need to be avoid negligence on our part. As workers, as God’s people, we need to be studying God’s words all the time. Meditating the Bible night and day as what it says. By doing this, we will be able to know and identify the right and false teachings. In this way, there is no reason why we cannot pursue faith.
Pursue Love (v. 24)
As I stare at the passage, Paul is mentioning 3 general topics, righteousness, love and peace. Though in this case, Paul made mentioned about loving as being kind to everyone. One of the things that we can in first place is to avoid godless chatter, because we know that this produces quarrels among the believers.
We are to be kind to everyone instead of quarreling. We are to teach them instead of making walls so that they cannot reach us out. Even if they tried to teach wrong, we are to rebuke them with love, with the purpose to restore them. We are still to love those who do not love us.
We are not to be resentful, showing our bitterness against them. Instead, we are to show our love and forgiveness to them. This means that if they believed a false teaching, we are to correct them in a way that is right in the eyes of the Lord.
Why do we need to practice love? First, we need to practice love because love is the reason why God gave his only begotten Son (John 3:16). Secondly, love is the greatest gift of God (1 Corinthians 13:13). Lastly, it is Jesus Christ’s command to love one another and that by this, we will be known to be his disciples (John 13:34-35).
Pursue Peace (v. 25)
One of the main products of love is peace. It also forms part with Christ’s gift to humanity. John 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
We are to have peace in Jesus Christ, even if we will have trouble with the world. To make it clear, we are to have peace with fellow men especially to our fellow brethrens. But we are to wage war against the schemes of the world, the spiritual battle within.
Ephesians 6:16, we are to wear the boots of peace so that we can maneuver freely in our ministry. Without a good relationship with our fellow men, it will be very difficult for us to share the gospel of Christ. This is why it is wise to share the word of the Lord to those people whom we have a good relationship.
As we can see here in the passage, even to the false teachers, we are to correct them gently and still in a loving way making sure that we are doing this with love. We are still to maintain a good relationship with. We should have nothing to do with godless chatter while maintaining a good relationship with them.
Pursue Fellowship (v. 25-26)
As far as we are looking at the passage, we can see here that Paul is instructing Timothy to maintain fellowship with his fellow believer as much as possible. Those who sinned must be restored gently, aiming for the goal that he will come back to the Lord.
Such love, peace and fellowship among the brotherhood of Christians, the sinning brother may come into his own senses and realize that he was imprisoned by the deadly schemes of the enemy.
Our fellowship with the fellow believers is very important. Here we can see that fellowship helps us grow in the Lord. By seeing our own mistakes, through the fellowship, we will be corrected against the things that we are doing.
God called us to be in the fellowship of the believers with a purpose. The fellowship of the believers helps us especially in times of needs.
Conclusion:
Are we still walking in righteousness?
Are we still walking with faith?
Are we still walking in love with each other?
Are we still walking with in peace with each other?
Are we excited to come to church to have fellowship with each other?
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