Another Bible Commentary: 2 Timothy

This letter contains Paul’s farewell instructions to Timothy before being executed.

1:6 Laying on of hands is traditional for commissioning a minister (1 Timothy 4:14).

1:9 We are saved and called to live as the saints we are. We don’t earn any of it. God’s plan for us was grace all along.

1:12 Jesus saves us completely (Hebrews 7:25).

1:13 “faith and love” Again, “Believe” and “Love”.

1:14 “good deposit” The teaching from verse 13.

1:15 This is with regard to support in prison, not the conspiracy theory that Paul was a false apostle.

1:16-18 Since we’re going to be just fine on Judgment Day, this seems like, “May Onesiphorous not be executed and get to return to his family.”

2:1 “grace” Paul could have spoken of many things in his last letter to Timothy. Grace is what is important.

2:2 The original apostles had added nothing to what Paul was saying (Galatians 2:6).

2:5-7 Paul told Timothy to play fairly in his ministry with regard to the things he had to defend himself about in 2 Corinthians. See Titus 1:11. Paul worked hard because of God’s grace (1 Corinthians 15:10); he wanted Timothy to do well rather than lose his flock like a disgraced former televangelist.

2:8 See 2 Samuel 7:11-16, Psalm 16:10, Psalm 110:1, Isaiah 9:6, Isaiah 11:1, and Jeremiah 23:5. Knowing that Jesus is God and Jesus is a fully human descendant of David defeats the heresies we see hints about in the Epistles. Adoptionism denied the pre-existence of Christ; it said that Jesus was born merely human but was later "adopted" or chosen by God to become the Son of God at some point in his life, usually during his baptism. That is false, because He wouldn’t have been around for David to call Him Lord. Docetism taught that Jesus only appeared to be human rather than wear filthy flesh and that his physical body was an illusion. Docetism was a precursor to Gnosticism and is a logical result of Platonism’s spirit-good-matter-bad outlook. Why would a hologram of a descendant of David be different from any other phantom? Real Jesus (that has really existed since before the universe we live in was created) really bled real blood and really died for a few days. See 1 John 1:1, Leviticus 17:11, and Hebrews 9:22.

2:9-10 Paul helped Gentiles get saved to make Jews envious (Romans 11:11-16).

2:11 We already died with Him (Galatians 2:20), and the new birth has happened (2 Corinthians 5:17). This flows right into the next verse:

2:12 Continued from verse 11, we have eternal life (John 3:16) and we reign with Him (Ephesians 2:6). Denying Him refers to an entire lifetime; Peter wasn’t damned for his denials (Mark 14:66-72), and Paul still found his way to grace (1 Timothy 1:13). The “we” and “us” that disown Him are a polite “we as humans” instead of pointing the finger at unbelieving Christ-deniers (Luke 11:52), but this is not about Christians, as the next verse clarifies.

2:13 If we as the Bride of Christ are faithless to Him, our outlook is much brighter than the deniers Paul just talked about. See Romans 8:39. If someone ever was saved, they have Him living in them (Galatians 2:20), share a spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17), and are as safe as Jesus is on Judgment Day (1 John 4:15-17).

2:14-26 are a unit. Paul gives more details about arguing about words as seen in 1 Timothy 6:4.

2:17-18 See 1 Timothy 1:20, 1 Timothy 6:20, and 1 Corinthians 15:12-19.

2:19 See Numbers 16:5 and Isaiah 52:11.

2:20-21 In contrast to the heresy mentioned in verses 16-18, Paul told Timothy to stay devoted to his purpose like the Nazirites of old, which in this case meant continuing to preach the truth. Your behavior can’t save you, but your usefulness to the Kingdom is at stake (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

2:22-26 “evil desires of youth” In 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, Paul said that to be quarrelsome is childish and verses 23 through 26 agree.

3:2-4 Many Christians tend to panic and look for themselves in vice lists like this, but it’s about the false apostles in verses 6 through 8 that were Paul’s opponents. You’re not supposed to hate the new self that you have become as part of the New Creation, so these were “lovers of (only) themselves”. The “unholy” connoted people to whom nothing was sacred like grave robbers who were into buggery and bestiality, etc. Believers mess up all the time (James 3:2) but our nature has changed (1 Corinthians 6:11) – we are simply not made of callously inhuman Machiavellian narcissistic stuff anymore.

3:5 “form of godliness but denying its power” Jannes and Jambres were Egyptian magicians that could imitate the plagues (Exodus 7:10-12). The false apostles looked the part, and they may have demonstrated sketchy “faith healing” with actors. See 2 Corinthians 11:13-15. Their insistence on rules like circumcision instead of reliance on the Holy Spirit living inside us was a clue that they were not new creations yet. Now, we have theological systems and denominations that have Christians thinking they’re still dirty on the inside and that they have to fake being good; there are people that allegedly believe He can do miracles, but that He cannot/has not made us good under the New Covenant.

3:6-7 See Acts 13:50; the Pharisees were already known to act like this (Roman poet Juvenal also said so). See 2 Corinthians 11:3-4 and 2 Corinthians 11:13-15. Note Paul’s use of symbolism: they wormed (slithered) their way in to trick women (like Eve). Humanity’s first sin was attempting to know better than what God had deemed good, and much bad behavior comes from believers ignorant of their new hearts still believing they are still weighed down with sins and evil desires. Always learning but never coming to knowledge is a hint at early Gnosticism, which said that the way to salvation was gnosis (knowledge).

3:8-9 See verse 5 note.

3:11 in Acts 13 and Acts 14.

3:12 Christians are united because Jesus prayed for it (John 17:20-23). Somewhere in the world, our brothers and sisters in Christ are persecuted in obvious ways, and believers not feeling that heat directly have a role in helping those who do.

3:13 “being deceived” Paul’s recommendation to avoid this is familiarity with the Bible (2 Timothy 3:15-17).

3:14-17 People inspired by the Holy Spirit wrote down the text of the books that became the Bible, and people inspired by the Holy Spirit selected the books of the canon. Paul himself admitted that not every word carries equal weight of inspiration (1 Corinthians 1:16 corrects 1 Corinthians 1:14, see also 1 Corinthians 7:6 and compare 1 Corinthians 7:10 with 1 Corinthians 7:12), but the Holy Spirit guides us in our studies (John 16:13). Anyone claiming the authority of apostolic succession still can’t get away with unbiblical teachings because we have the apostles’ inspired words. The five “only” statements of the Reformation are that we are saved by grace alone (sola gratia), by faith alone (sola fides), in Christ alone (sola Christus), for the purpose of glory of God alone (sola gloria de Deo), trusting the Bible alone (sola Scriptura).

4:1 “judge the living and the dead” Yes, believers are living because we have eternal life (John 3:16), but we’re done being judged (John 5:24). All unbelieving humanity will be judged, both the dead and those who haven’t died yet at His return. This is why we evangelize (verse 5).

4:2-4 Jesus is the Truth. The world is full of people looking toward everything but Him.

4:7 See Acts 20:24. Paul completed his mission to evangelize and kept the faith safe from Judaizers.

4:8 The reward is not contingent on Paul’s or our behavior, only on our faith in Jesus.

4:10 “loved this world” Demas (Colossians 4:14) feared for his life. He left the special hard calling of ministry, not necessarily the faith. See 2 Timothy 2:13. Demas was not described as vehemently as the false teachers of chapters 2 and 3.

4:11 It’s nice to see that Mark and Paul were reconciled.

4:12 “Tychicus” from Acts 20:4.

4:13 Paul had talked to Christ extensively and visited Heaven, but still wanted to read the Old Testament even at the end of his earthly life.

4:14-15 Paul didn’t pray to avert that outcome. Forgiveness just means letting go of personal revenge. God is God. See Deuteronomy 32:35, Romans 12:19, 1 Peter 2:23, and 1 Corinthians 3:17. Only Jesus forgives perfectly; we killed Him with our sins (Romans 5:8), and He forgave us entirely (Luke 23:34, Hebrews 10:14).

4:16 As God’s not holding our behavior against us anymore (Hebrews 8:12, 2 Corinthians 5:19), Paul perhaps meant that he did not want these believers’ reputations to suffer on account of deserting him.

4:18 You cannot truly kill a Christian; even a beheading counts as a safe trip to Heaven.

4:20 Trophimus from Acts 20:4 got sick. Some believers find this shocking and would tell him to have more faith, but Paul would have said for him to take his medicine (1 Timothy 5:23). The frequency/intensity of miracles/signs appears to have waned later in Paul’s ministry as we discussed in the Acts 28:25-28 note.

4:22 These were the last words of Paul to Timothy.

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