That is why the church which has no Bible Class is a church in whose work an essential element is missing. One must try disorders and prove profession. 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. he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me." We must remember that Timothy's work lay in Ephesus, perhaps the greatest market in the ancient world. I believe that God intended you to have pleasure, but when it comes before God, it means that it has become your God and it makes a very poor God to worship or serve. Now we see that when Paul was touching the confines of that difficult and most perilous moment when John was to be left alone, he brings out as his last note that very truth which John was to develop with special care and fulness. Product Information. 2 Timothy 3 Bible Commentary - Matthew Henry (concise) - Christianity He blames the Jews who searched them, because they failed to learn the lesson which they were intended to convey. He was one that needed to lean on an arm stronger than his own. 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. They're profitable for doctrine. As Timothy was about to enter upon a new phase of his ministry, without the apostle's presence or living counsel, the latter charges him with great emphasis, "before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word, be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine." He is sure that the ungodly man will go from bad to worse and that there is literally no future for the man who refuses to accept the way of God. Copyright Statement These files are public domain. "Follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Finally, we have his assertion of the blessed Lord's care, and his confidence in Him that He would preserve him from all evil to His heavenly kingdom; closing this solemn and touching epistle (it would seem the last words he wrote) with salutations to various saints. When Carlyle's father was discussing the kind of minister his parish needed, he said: "What this parish needs is a man who knows Christ other than at secondhand." When children are disobedient to their parents, and break through the obligations which they lie under to them both in duty and gratitude, and frequently in interest, having their dependence upon them and their expectation from them, they make the times perilous; for what wickedness will those stick at who will be abusive to their own parents and And yet, it is becoming in this hedonistic society commonplace, all too commonplace, tragically commonplace. "They that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." Next he comes to a more personal need. The man who is mastered by his lower passions will gratify them in the most shameless way, as the streets of any great city will show when the night is late. Such offence can and does happen yet. Men will be inflated with conceit (tetuphomenos, G5187) . When we know the afflictions of good people but in part, they are a temptation to us to decline that cause which they suffer for; when we know only the hardships they undergo for Christ, we may be ready to say, "We will renounce that cause that is likely to cost us so dear in the owning of it;" but when we fully know the afflictions, not only how they suffer, but how they are supported and comforted under their sufferings, then, instead of being discouraged, we shall be animated by them, especially considering that we are told before that we must count upon such things (2 Timothy 3:12; 2 Timothy 3:12): All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution: not always alike; at that time those who professed the faith of Christ were more exposed to persecution than at other times; but at all times, more or less, those who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Rather they are minimum requirements that otherwise suitable people must fulfil if the church is to recognize them as elders or deacons. Then the apostle puts before them a blessed model of that which he had before his own soul. The apostle mentions the Lord's delivering him out of them all, for Timothy's and our encouragement under sufferings. They just are irritated by your love and by your patience and by your goodness because they feel guilty. i. One day a visitor came to the ward and left a supply of gospels. (186) Et tous ceux aussi qui veulent vivre en la crainte de Dieu. And all those also who wish to live in the fear of God., (187) Que rien ne luy est advenu que tous fideles ne doyvent aussi attendre. That nothing has happened to him which all believers must not also look for.. Rather he must "labour before he partake of the fruits." Good to have pleasure but don't make it your God. Others must do that kind of work in future. This might deter a sensitive saint from his duty. In Brazil Signor Antonio of Minas bought a New Testament which he took home to burn. The scriptures are able to make us truly wise, wise for our souls and another world. There were false teachers who were quick to take advantage of that. Christian life is a life of purpose. The man who is anosios ( G462) offends against the fundamental decencies of life. ", Persecution = The essence of persecution consists in subjecting a person to injury or disadvantage on account of his [beliefs].. And many shall be stirred up in anger to injure many; And they shall rouse up armies in order to shed blood. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines; for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace,Hebrews 13:9. It is used in Plutarch to describe what we would call an ugly wound. There is peril when men assess prosperity by material things. The essence of persecution consists in subjecting a person to injury or disadvantage on account of his opinions. It is something more than meeting his opinions by argument, which is always right and proper; it is inflicting some injury on him; depriving him of some privilege, or right; subjecting him to some disadvantage, or placing him in less favorable circumstances, on account of his sentiments. Some of you here are victims of broken covenants. He directs him to keep close to a good education, and particularly to what he had learned out of the holy scriptures (2 Timothy 3:14; 2 Timothy 3:15): Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known Commentary on 2 Timothy 3:14-17. In it we find the duties, the qualities and the experiences of an apostle. So if you want God to use your life, then thoroughly equip yourself in the Word of God, the study, the understanding.That's why we're here tonight. Yea, and all that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Such is the perversity of sin. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God. When trouble fell on the Thessalonians, Paul wrote to them: "When we were with you, we told you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction; just as it has come to pass, and as you know" ( 1 Thessalonians 3:4). It follows from this: (1) that they who make a profession of religion, should come prepared to be persecuted. That which finishes a man of God in this world is the scripture. Comp. Copyright 2023, Bible Study Tools. Some of you are separated not by your own desire or wish, but because someone was a trucebreaker. It should be considered as one of the proper qualifications for membership in the church, to be willing to bear persecution, and to resolve not to shrink from any duty in order to avoid it. He might even seem to be humble; but in his secret heart there is contempt for everyone else. A. M. Chirgwin in The Bible in World Evangelism tells the story of a ward sister in a children's hospital in England. There is the idea of menace and of danger in this word. They cannot understand an inspired apostle talking about a cloak in the midst of a divinely given pastoral charge. If he does not hide the sorrowful view of an old fellow-labourer's cooling in zeal, with all its dangers, the consolation is also before Timothy both of those that go on in faithful labour, and of one at least restored. And the comfort is that, if prepared to cleave to the will of the Lord alone, we shall have, through His grace, fellowship with the true-hearted. The technique would be the same in the days of Timothy as it was in the later days of Irenaeus. It's going to get worse before it gets better. Those who would learn the things of God, and be assured of them, must know the Holy Scriptures, for they are the Divine revelation. She doesn't have the time to prepare the meal on Friday evening and we'll go out on Friday night. But continue thou in the things which you have learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus ( 2 Timothy 3:14-15 ). That's just fable. There is no godliness (Greek, "piously") or piety out of Christ. It is the ability not to lose patience when people are foolish, not to grow irritable when they seem unteachable. It is one thing to start an evil and untrue report on its malicious way; it is entirely another thing to stop it. Matthew 10:22-23; Luke 21:12; John 15:20; Acts 14:22; 1 Thessalonians 3:4). Who is talking all these words without knowledge? So we find that God knows how to temper the bitter with the sweet, always doing the right thing in the right place and time. You have no authority.So if I tell you that some scriptures are not really inspired of God, then I become the authority, not the Bible anymore, because you can't just read the whole Bible and trust it because not all of it is inspired. You know the persecutions that I experienced, but the Lord delivered me out of them all. Exalting Jesus in 1,2,3 John (Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary