Commentary on 2 Timothy

Contents

In a few places the lemma printed in a passage belongs to a neighbouring verse (the digital text misnumbers verses); the passage keeps its staged number.

Reading pages: 0.1–2.24 · 3.1–4.17

1. 0.1Paul writes again to urge Timothy toward martyrdom and to warn of coming errors, wishing him the one grace of Father and Son and a succession of fit teachers after him.
2. 1.3Paul thanks God, whom he served like his Jewish forefathers, for Timothy’s inherited sincere faith, and urges him to rekindle the grace of his ordination, since God’s Spirit gives power, love, and sobriety, not fear.
3. 1.8There is no shame in the gospel or in Paul’s chains: Christ’s cross ended in resurrection, and God lets his servants suffer so their reward is just.
4. 1.9God, foreknowing sin, predestined salvation by grace and not by merit, and called unworthy men to lead his people; this hidden gift was revealed in Christ’s coming.
5. 1.11Christ destroyed death and brought eternal life to light through the gospel Paul preaches.
6. 1.12Paul is not ashamed of suffering, for he has entrusted his salvation to Christ, who will guard it until judgment day.
7. 1.13Timothy must keep Paul’s teaching through the Spirit; Phygelus and Hermogenes, false friends, deserted Paul, while Onesiphorus was not ashamed to visit him in prison.
8. 1.17Onesiphorus sought Paul out in Roman custody; Paul prays the Father to grant him mercy from the Son at the judgment, as in Gen 19:24.
9. 2.1Timothy must be strong in grace and entrust the teaching only to faithful men able to teach others.
10. 2.3A cleric, as Christ’s soldier, must keep out of worldly business, which serves greed and involves lying.
11. 2.5God’s soldier must compete by the rules, devoted wholly to divine service, to win the heavenly crown.
12. 2.6Timothy, who abstained from the church’s funds, is told that the laborer should take his own share first and then distribute to others.
13. 2.8Against heretics who deny the incarnation, Paul insists on the risen Christ of David’s seed; his chains could not bind the word, which he preached even in prison.
14. 2.10Paul endures all things so that the elect may be saved through his preaching.
15. 2.11Those who remain in the death to sin given at baptism and endure suffering will live and reign with Christ; those who deny him will be denied.
16. 2.13Our unbelief takes nothing from God and our faith adds nothing; faith profits only us.
17. 2.14Timothy should give commands under God’s fear but avoid word battles, which unsettle new believers.
18. 2.15Debate forces people to argue against conscience; God’s servants should confer peaceably rather than quarrel.
19. 2.16Believers of one faith should not quarrel; the catholic should keep away from profane talk, which spreads like a cancer.
20. 2.18Hymenaeus and Philetus denied the future resurrection, claiming, as another source says, that it occurs in one’s children.
21. 2.19Faith in God’s promises is a firm foundation that heretics cannot shake; God knows his own, as Moses told Korah’s rebels.
22. 2.20The great house is the church, which contains good and bad members, as Corinth and the temple show; Novatian wrongly makes it the world in order to claim a pure church.
23. 2.21Since anyone can purge himself and become a vessel for honor, the heresy that some souls are evil by nature is refuted.
24. 2.22Timothy must flee youthful pleasures and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace.
25. 2.23Foolish questions from unbelievers and heretics provoke quarrels and should be avoided.
26. 2.24The Lord’s servant must be gentle and patient in correcting opponents, hoping God will grant them repentance.
27. 3.1Paul prophesies the vices of the last days, which Ambrosiaster applies to heretics and Jews who claim godliness but deny its power by their deeds.
28. 3.6Heretics who creep into houses and capture gullible women are above all the Manichees, hypocrites whom Diocletian’s edict describes as recently arrived from Persia.
29. 3.8Like Jannes and Mambres, the Egyptian magicians known from the apocrypha who opposed Moses and were humbled, the heretics will be exposed.
30. 3.10Timothy has followed Paul’s teaching and sufferings, which will end in joy.
31. 3.12God rescued Paul from his persecutions, as he will all who live godly lives, while deceivers who prosper lead others astray and will answer for them.
32. 3.14Timothy should continue in what he learned, since the Old Testament he knew from childhood points to Christ and grounds the new.
33. 3.16All Scripture inspired by God is useful to teach, correct, and train the man of God for every good work.
34. 4.1Paul solemnly charges Timothy to preach constantly and to correct without bitterness.
35. 4.3Paul foretells that people will reject sound teaching for teachers who tell them what they want, as above all the Manichees do with their fables.
36. 4.5Facing martyrdom, which he calls a libation to God, Paul charges Timothy to carry on his ministry so that fit teachers may never be lacking.
37. 4.6Paul has fought the good fight and kept the faith, and awaits the crown the righteous Judge will give him and all who love Christ’s coming.
38. 4.9Deserted by Demas and others, Paul asks Timothy to come and bring Mark, whose past labors he values.
39. 4.13Paul’s cloak was perhaps his father’s as a citizen of Tarsus; Alexander the coppersmith is to be avoided; and Paul forgives those who deserted him at his first defense, as the disciples deserted Christ.
40. 4.17God stood by Paul and rescued him from the devil’s jaws; Paul sends greetings, explains why Trophimus was left sick, and closes with his signature naming Jesus Christ as God and man.