A Ministry of First Baptist Church Elyria OH

   
     First Baptist Church - Elyria, Ohio
Tap To Call

14-2Tim2:15

Study of 2 Timothy 2:14 & 15

V. 14Remind them of these things, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless,

Remind them of these things”  –  an imperative  –  The Greek word here for ‘remind’ carries the further idea of persistence.  
Them  = the congregation    
Things = the positive responsibility to pass on God’s truth  –  oppose and correct false teaching in the church.  The Greek word carries this meaning:  92.29οὗτος,αὕτη,τοῦτο: a reference to an entity regarded as a part of the discourse setting, with pejorative meaning in certain contexts8—‘‘this was in the beginning with God’ Jn 1:2; ‘know this, that the kingdom of God has come near’….

V. 14a  ….solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle

The Greek word a strong verb as an imperative and stern warning.

Louw-Nida:  33.425διαμαρτύρομαιc: to admonish or instruct with regard to some future happening or action, with the implication of personal knowledge or experience—‘to warn. –  Lk 16:28.

“in the presence of God….”               

                Being specially aware of God’s presence adds a measure of healthy fear of the Lord and therefore of increased determination to serve Him faithfully.
“The presence of God” is used to comfort believers – Psalm 68:7–8 (ESV)  7 O God, when you went out before your people,   when you marched through the wilderness, Selah  8  the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain,  before God, the One of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.
PAUL write it his way:  Acts 3:19–20 (ESV)  –  19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus,

In view of the ‘presence of God’ we are told not to wrangle about words….. 

Three Translations below for 2 Timothy 2: 14b

V.14b…..not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers (NKJV)    
V. 14b….not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. (ESV)
V.14b….not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers.   (NASB)

 

 Logomacheō (wrangle about words) carries the idea of waging a war of words, in this instance with false teachers, who are later described as “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7).

Unbelievers put no stock in the divine authority of God’s Word, and believers should put no stock in the presumed authority of men’s words. No matter how biblically sound their arguments may be in themselves, Christians who debate with unbelievers inadvertently allow Scripture to be considered on the same level as human wisdom.

      

“logomachein”

33.454λογομαχέω; λογομαχία,ας f: to argue or quarrel about the meaning or use of words—‘to quarrel about words, arguing about words.’

λογομαχέω: διαμαρτυρόμενος ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ μὴ λογομαχεῖν ‘give themwarning in God’s presence not to quarrel over words’ 2 Tm 2:14.

λογομαχία: νοσῶν περὶ ζητήσεις καὶ λογομαχίας ‘he has an unhealthy desire for arguments and quarrels about words’ 1 Tm 6:4.

Satan does indeed know that most people, including many who are intelligent and well-educated, are more apt to be persuaded by popular jargon than by biblical argument or actual proof—despite what they may claim to the contrary.

In the last several centuries, the most unbiblical, humanistic, and destructive philosophies have come through channels of higher education, including many colleges, universities, and seminaries that claim to be Christian, and once were.
 

Human intelligence has never been a match for the wiles of Satan.

The sinful pride of manis nowhere more clearly seen than in exalting his own intellect over Scripture and in considering such utter foolishness to be scholarship.

Many undiscerning students line up to learn from these pseudoscholars and have the strength of any remaining convictions turned into weakness.

False teaching as:  abortion, theistic evolution, homosexuality, no fault divorce, feminism, etc..

The promotion of high self-esteem as a Christian virtue – instead it is the very foundation of sin.   (It means to ‘rely on self’, not God.)   (You have the power; you don’t need God’s help.)

Why it happens and how to prevent:  As Christians become less and less familiar with Scripture and sound doctrine on a firsthand, regular basis, they become easy prey for jargon that sounds Christian but strongly mitigates against God’s truth.

1 Timothy 4:1(ESV)  4 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 

 

Paul gives six specific reasons for avoiding and opposing all false teaching: it ruins the hearers

1.                  it brings shame on the teacher (v. 15),

2.                  it leads to ungodliness (v. 16),

3.                  it spreads rapidly (v. 17a),

4.                  it upsets the faith of some (vv. 17b–18),

5.                  it characterizes those who do not belong to the Lord (v. 19)

14c – , but only ruins the hearers

False teachers damage to those that hear it.  An obstacle to the Gospel

Interesting that the translator uses one word “ruin” and the Greek Text used two words   

Epi – on or in the direction of…

LN – 89.60ἐπίo; πρόςh; χάρινb: markers of purpose, pointing to the goal of an event or state—‘for the purpose of, for the sake of, in order to.’

ἐπίo: κτισθέντες ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ ἐπὶ ἔργοις ἀγαθοῖς ‘created in Christ Jesus for the purpose of good works’ Eph 2:10; ἰδὼν δὲ πολλοὺς τῶν Φαρισαίων καὶ Σαδδουκαίων ἐρχομένους ἐπὶ τὸ βάπτισμα αὐτοῦ ‘seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to be baptized by him’ Mt 3:7.  …  One may also interpret τούτου χάρινas expressing reason in both Eph 3:1 and Eph 3:14,…‘what, then, was the purpose of the Law? It was added in order to show what wrongdoing is’ Ga 3:19.

Katastrophe – ruin, destruction

LN-20.17καταστροφήa,ῆς f: to do serious harm to, with the implication of misleading—‘to cause harm, to cause ruin to.’ μὴ λογομαχεῖν,ἐπʼ οὐδὲν χρήσιμον,ἐπὶ καταστροφῇ τῶν ἀκουόντων ‘not to fight over words; it does no good but rather harms those who hear’ 2 Tm 2:14.

The word (Katastrophe ) ONLY used twice:

 

2 Peter 2:6  – only other time it is used in NT….

2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV) – Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Spoudazō(To be diligent) carries the idea of having zealous persistence to accomplish a particular objective. The diligent believer—in this context, the diligent teacher—gives maximum effort to impart God’s truth as completely, as clearly, and as unambiguously as possible –

1 Timothy 5:17(ESV) 17 Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.   

  

Spoudazō – Be Diligent – LN – 68.63to do something with intense effort and motivation—‘to work hard, to do one’s best, to endeavor.’  ‘do your best to preserve the unity which the Spirit gives’ Eph 4:3. …‘whoever has authority must work hard’ Ro 12:8.

The purpose of that diligence is … present yourself approved to God.

Paristēmi(to present yourself)literally means to stand alongside of.   –  …. presenting oneself for inspection, as it were, in order to be approved by Him.

Paristēmi – LN: 13.11παρίστημιbor παριστάνω: to cause something to be or to serve as—‘to cause to be, to cause to serve as, to make something be.’…to make you holy, pure and faultless in his presence’ Col 1:22; …‘do not cause any part of yourselves to serve as an instrument for doing wrong’ Ro 6:13.

 
Dokimos (approved) refers to favorably passing careful scrutiny and thereby being counted worthy.

 

Dokimosδόκιμοςb,ον: pertaining to being genuine on the basis of testing—‘genuine, sincere.’ ἀσπάσασθε Ἀπελλῆν τὸν δόκιμον ἐν Χριστῷ ‘greet Apelles (whose faith) in Christ is genuine’ Ro 16:10.

The supreme purpose of the diligent and selfless teacher is to please God.

Every Christian teacher and preacher should be able to say, 1 Thess. 2:4 –  “Just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men but God, who examines our hearts”.
 

His greatest desire is to hear his Master say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:21).
Such a teacher or preacher is a workman who does not need to be ashamed.

  The Title Ho Theos  is comprised of two Greek words. ho  meaning, “the” and theos  meaning, “god”.

John 20:28  –  Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

 

  The mark of a faithful teacheror preacher is his handling accurately the word of truth. Handling accurately translates a participle of orthotomeō, which means literally to cut straight.

·                     It was used of a craftsman cutting a straight line,

·                     a farmer plowing a straight furrow,

·                     a mason setting a straight line of bricks,

·                     of workmen building a straight road.

               

“…rightly handling the word of truth.”

33.234ὀρθοτομέω: to give accurate instruction—‘to teach correctly, to expound rightly..‘do your best … to teach the word of truth correctly’ 2 Tm 2:15. 

Strong Concordance uses it to mean “literally to cut straight” – 3718ὀρθοτομέω[orthotomeo /or·thot·om·eh·o/] … 1to cut straight, to cut straight ways. 1ato proceed on straight paths, hold a straight course, equiv. to doing right. 2to make straight and smooth, to handle aright, to teach the truth directly and correctly.

Text Box: “Logos” - Wordthe phrase word of truth,or message of truth, refers specifically to the gospelthe message of truth, the gospel of your salvation— (Eph. 1:13; Col. 1:5)

God’s truth refer to the full revelation of His Word in Scripture. Jesus said “ “Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth” (John 17:17)

“logos” 33.98ῥῆμαb,τος n; λόγοςa,ου m(derivative of λέγωa‘to say,’ 33.69): that which has been stated or said, with primary focus upon the content of the communication—‘word, saying, message, statement, question.’…‘but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’ Mt 4:4.

  “hoaletheia’   As studied before “ho” is THE….

“Aletheia”72.2ἀλήθεια,ας f: the content of that which is true and thus in accordance with what actually happened—‘truth.’ εἶπεν αὐτῷ πᾶσαν τὴν ἀλήθειαν ‘she told him the whole truth’ Mk 5:33. In Jn 8:32 ἀλήθεια is used to refer to the revelation of God that Jesus brings or, perhaps, to Jesus himself for what he actually is as the revelation of God.

Because the Bible is God’s inerrant, authoritative, sufficient, and sole source of His divine word of truth, every other truth rests on that truth.
It is only from the truth of Scripture that we can know all other truths.

 

       
       Rounded Rectangle: God’s word of truth in Scripture is the source and measure not only of all spiritual and moral truth but of all truth of any sort on which it speaks.
 
    Rounded Rectangle: It is one thing to genuinely repent of a sin and to have the assurance of God’s forgiveness. It is a different thing entirely to twist God’s Word in an effort to justify the sin.  It is one thing for an unbeliever, who makes no claim of godliness, to be unashamed of a sin. It is quite another thing, and immeasurably worse, for a person who claims salvation to be unashamed of a sin, especially when God’s Word is used to defend it.