2 Timothy 3

2 Timothy 3:1-17

Division 4. (2 Timothy 3:1-17.)The testing every way. The apostle goes on now to the last days. He anticipates no recovery, save that of individuals, from the state of things which he has brought before us. On the contrary, men will “wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” It is quite true that God has again and again, as history shows us, come in for the deliverance of numbers, and we are prone to take this as encouragement to believe that there may be, after all, a recovery of the mass. Scripture gives no hope of such a condition. The history of Israel under the Judges is that which is being repeated today; and here we see that, in spite of all that God may work in this way, still there is, on the whole, more and more, a growing degeneracy and departure from God.

1. In the last days, then, -days which cannot be succeeded, therefore, by any of a different character, -difficult times would be present, a state of things characterized by almost all that characterized the heathenism of old, as the apostle has pictured it for us in the epistle to the Romans. This in itself would be only the repetition, therefore, of what has existed before, and people might still ask, “Is the world, in fact, growing worse?” “Have not these things always been?” The thing that distinguishes the last days from all that have preceded them is, that with the indulgence of every evil lust, men “lovers of their own selves, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God,” there is still a “form of piety,” but which denies the power of it. This is what we find in days like the present, the wearing out of Christianity in its power to affect the masses, -even to keep under real control the evil which more and more displays itself in its true character. Along with this, the form of piety may, nevertheless, have been spread. Mere open ungodliness carries its own condemnation with it, and therefore men will deceive themselves to the uttermost in a way most palpable to all outside themselves, and grace be turned effectually by them into license.

From these, says the apostle, turn away. The show of piety is, of course, just what makes the times so difficult.

Everywhere, things are not what they seem. The process of corruption was already beginning in the days of the apostle himself. He could point to those who entered into houses, leading captive silly women laden with sin, led by various lusts; always learning," upon the one hand; and yet “never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” A solemn reason this is, indeed, for lack of progress wherever it exists. It is not in any weakness of mind; it is not by any power of deception, even, on the part of others; nothing of this can deceive those who are not, first of all, self-deceived -who do not yield themselves, in fact, to the deception. Man is always in this sense master of himself, and God judges him as this. Whatever may be the power of the enemy, the skill of the god of this age in blinding men so as to shut out the glory of Christ from them, yet it is only the disobedient and unbelieving from whom he can shut it out. God has not delivered man over into his hands in such a way as not to allow escape to be always possible and sure to the soul that in the consciousness of its need will turn to Him. 2. The character of the opposition is still further dwelt upon. “As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so these, also, withstand the truth.” It was by the imitation of the miracles wrought by Moses that the Egyptian sorcerers sought to blind, and did blind, the king of Egypt. Juggling, of course, it was, and no true miracle; and no deliverance at all was even attempted by them. They could only increase the evil by what they did, and not relieve it. They could bring frogs up out of the river, but they could not take them away. They could turn water into blood, or seem to do so, but could never turn back the blood into water.

Thus they could not possibly unfasten the hold of judgment upon them or upon their false gods, and there came a time in which this was fully evident, in which they had themselves to own that there was the finger of God manifest; as therefore in that which they had done there was no finger of God. Just so with the deceivers that were coming in, withstanding the truth by imitations of it, but which could not imitate the blessed salvation of God, for those in conscious need of it. As “men of corrupt mind, reprobate concerning the faith,” they too would come to a point in which their folly would be fully manifest. The fruit of God’s blessed word, the power of His Spirit, cannot, after all, be imitated. This has its own unmistakable evidence for every one who has eyes to see. The apostle points Timothy, in view of these things, to his own “doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, endurance,” in all that came upon him.

His life was formed by the doctrine, and his doctrine was in the power of the Spirit of God. Out of all the persecutions the Lord had delivered him, and “all that will live piously in Christ Jesus” must expect to suffer after the same manner, while “evil men and juggling impostors” would continually “wax worse and worse.” Thus there is no hope but in the coming of the Lord Himself. 3. The apostle was about to depart, but there was still an ample provision made for the sustenance of God’s people, however evil the days might be. For Timothy there was the satisfaction of knowing of whom he had learned the truth, the apostle’s teaching being in fullest harmony, and, indeed, the ripe fruit of what had been made known to him from a child in sacred Scriptures, able to make “wise unto salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus.” Thus we see how even the apostle’s words are not and could not be left to stand for themselves and be merely their own witnesses. God has been acting and speaking in the world from the beginning, and all truth must connect itself thus with that which He has been doing and saying. The Scriptures of which the apostle here speaks to Timothy, are, of course, the Old Testament Scriptures; but we see everywhere how thoroughly the apostle appeals to them, and how the written Word is in this way honored by the living speaker, even though speaking that which might be newly revealed by the Spirit of God. How important to realize this unity of the divine testimony all the way through the ages; and how clearly we can understand the effort of Satan now, first of all, to destroy, if possible, the power of that testimony from the beginning, so as to leave the Christian faith cut off really from its foundation! Scripture was, as we know, that by which the Bereans tested the word of the apostle himself, and they are commended for it. We see, on the one hand, how the Old Testament handed on its disciples to the New, and how the New, also, was needed in order to give its full power to the older revelation. Thus, while he says that the sacred Scriptures he had known were able to make Timothy wise unto salvation, he adds: “through faith that is in Christ Jesus.” In fact salvation, in all that is implied in it in the New Testament, is plainly something additional to the Old Testament. Men could not speak before Christianity of being saved, in the same way in which now we commonly speak of it. Salvation was, in general, even where we find the word, a deliverance from dangers or from circumstances of trial, from the power of the enemy, no doubt; but scarcely anywhere a proper salvation from sin; yet how important the witness of the old revelation when the new was being announced, and to us, also, to whom it has been announced! Nothing that God has given but has a permanent value which remains for us to all time. “All Scripture is inspired of God, and profitable for doctrine.” Here we come to a passage which is most contested, of course, and which we are told we have to read as, “Every scripture inspired of God,” as if it distinguished such from other scriptures side by:side with them, and therefore we had to distinguish in like manner. At once the human mind is set in supremacy over the Scripture, and we become judges of it instead of its judging us. But the apostle has been already pointing out the sacred Scriptures of which he is speaking when he says “All Scripture.” Nothing is Scripture in the sense he uses the word except that which is in the sacred Scriptures, and nothing that is in them is without that inspiration of God which makes it “profitable for doctrine, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” The apostle Peter afterwards speaks of Paul having written to the Hebrews “according to the wisdom given to him,” and puts the epistle that he had written among “the other Scriptures” -plainly as having the same character which is claimed for “all Scripture” here. The word, of course, may mean merely " writing," but “The Writings,” for us, are those distinguished from all other writings. It is impossible to confound them, for a soul that has the secret of God, though Rome has added, as we know, certain apocryphal books -yet who, with his eyes open, could accept one of them as upon an equal footing with those that have always been counted as Scripture? Who could add one book to the number of those that we possess? or who could mend one of them so as to justify his emendation to the Christian conscience? Of course, I am not speaking of the correction of texts, where there is manuscript authority for the correction, but simply of a correction manifestly from man’s mind, with all the learning in it which they boast of in the present day. When can they give us a Bible in this way that even they (who as specialists are supposed to have authority to commend it for us) will be able to agree about amongst themselves? Scripture has suffered, indeed, how much from the ignorance that we have of it, and from the little faith which has produced the ignorance! We have found little instruction, it may be, and no edification, from many parts that can be pointed out; and it is man’s way continually either to throw the blame of this upon God, or to vindicate Him at the expense of the Word that He has given; but the more we search into these barren passages with the remembrance of what the apostle has spoken here, the more we shall find how truly there is in them also that which is of ample importance to justify their place in the word of God; and if we cannot find even a genealogy recorded to be “profitable for doctrine,” it is (to say the least, most probably it is,) because we have begun by decreeing that it is not there, and therefore have never truly and devoutly searched for it. But the fact is, the higher the claim we make for Scripture, the more shall we find Scripture itself justifying the claim. The more we believe in the perfection of every part, the more we shall come to realize that perfection everywhere in it.

Let us hold it fast that all Scripture, as inspired of God, is in fact, and must be, “profitable for doctrine.” God in it all is providing for us that which shall have blessing for our souls, not mere facts of history or something which is merely barren knowledge, but that which is to mold and fashion us, and put us in communion with the mind of Christ. For this we need every part of it, and it is the loss of so much practically for our souls that makes us so much lacking in true knowledge of every kind. Let us notice that, first of all, the apostle puts the doctrine as that for which Scripture is “profitable.” Doctrine must come first, as the basis of everything. Truth must be ours before there can be the application of truth; and then, let us notice that the apostle immediately brings that application home in a personal way to ourselves. The first use of the doctrine is for “conviction.” It is light that shines upon us, shines upon all the road in which we are, but which discovers, necessarily, in a world like this, among a people such as we are, that which must humble and bring down all the pride of our hearts, so that not as philosophers shall we receive it, but as sinners, though, through God’s grace, saved sinners also. But “conviction” here, of course, is not the primary conviction merely. As we go on, it accompanies us at every step. We learn ourselves under this light more and more, and we learn what the world is.

But the light is none the less blessed on that account, because it displays the evil of so much that it shines upon. “Correction” is that which is to follow “conviction,” while “instruction in righteousness” carries us on to the positive side of things, and occupies us with the good in itself, and not merely enables us to distinguish it from the evil. But thus the man of God is by Scripture itself made complete, “thoroughly furnished to every good work.” It does not say, as we have often insisted upon, that every man may be complete, although Paul’s heart would indeed desire that it might be possible to “present every man perfect in Christ Jesus;” yet it is only as men of God that we can be thus complete, thus furnished. If we are not that, we shall inevitably stumble over Scripture, in some part of it, as “they that are unlearned and undisciplined,” Peter tells us, do. Scripture is not written so that every one, apart from his moral condition altogether, may be able to possess himself of it, and it is not, indeed, written so that every one may, with a little pains, understand the whole. It speaks, as we know, with the sweetest familiarity, and with the encouragement that is ever of God; but it manifests itself, nevertheless, as that which is beyond us, higher than ourselves, the revelation of One who necessarily is that, and whose ways and thoughts we may be led on into more and more, just because they are always still beyond us. But how wonderful, then, is this “God-breathed” Scripture, as the word “inspired” means! It is in this sense that we can call it all the word of God. There is no need for overlooking and no comfort in overlooking the human element, but that human element is always penetrated with the divine, and lifted into and empowered for that which is higher than man, and beyond him.