Homilies on 2 Timothy

Contents

Reading pages: 1.1–1.2 · 2.1–2.4 · 3.1–3.2 · 4.1–4.4 · 5.1–5.4 · 6.1–6.4 · 7.1–7.4 · 8.1–8.5 · 9.1–9.3 · 10.1–10.5

1. 1.1Chrysostom explains why Paul wrote a second letter to Timothy, near the end of his life, and how the opening (“beloved child,” his constant prayers, Timothy's tears) consoles a disheartened disciple.
2. 1.2Chrysostom praises Timothy's inherited faith, urges him to rekindle the gift given by Paul's laying on of hands, and then preaches that every human life has grief, that only virtue's grief profits, and that almsgiving, not lifted hands, gets prayer heard.
3. 2.1On 2 Tim 1:8–10, Chrysostom warns against measuring divine things by human reason, as the heretics did who were ashamed of the cross, and shows that Paul's bonds and Christ's death are matters for boasting, and that salvation comes by God's purpose and grace, not by works.
4. 2.2Chrysostom explains Paul's unashamed suffering and his “deposit” (the faith, or the believers), then urges the people to honour and obey their priests, since God ordains them and works through them whatever their own merit.
5. 2.3Chrysostom argues that God works through unworthy priests as he worked through Balaam's donkey and Judas, forbids the people to judge their priests or boast over them like the Pharisee, and teaches that the sacraments depend on God's grace and the recipient's faith, not the minister's virtue.
6. 2.4Closing Homily 2, Chrysostom compares a bad priest to a wounded doctor whose state does not excuse the patient, and teaches that the eucharistic offering and baptism are the same whoever performs them, because God sanctifies them and everything depends on faith.
7. 3.1On 2 Tim 1:13–18, Chrysostom says Paul handed Timothy an unwritten pattern of teaching to be guarded by the Spirit, notes that Paul reports the desertion of the Asians without cursing them, and teaches that those who help confessors in their afflictions share their crowns.
8. 3.2Chrysostom shows that one can share in the crowns of saints living and departed, refutes Marcionite use of “the Lord … from the Lord,” describes the fearful judgment as an act of God's love meant to rouse us, and warns that we who blame greedy officials are equally guilty, since God judges the will and not the size of the deed.
9. 4.1On 2 Tim 2:1–7, Chrysostom explains that Paul's sufferings should strengthen Timothy, that the faith must be entrusted to faithful men able to teach, and that the images of soldier, athlete and farmer call for endurance, discipline and labour.
10. 4.2Chrysostom explains the farmer's reward, why Paul reminds Timothy of the risen Christ against the heretics, that the word of God is not bound though the preacher is, and that Paul's sufferings for the elect repay the grace God first showed us.
11. 4.3Chrysostom contrasts Nero, who had every worldly glory and even demanded worship as a god, with Paul, a poor Cilician tentmaker in chains, and argues that the prisoner was the more glorious because he defied the emperor and could not be stopped from preaching.
12. 4.4Concluding Homily 4, Chrysostom argues that Paul's chains outshone Nero's crown, that Paul's honoured tomb in Rome against Nero's forgotten grave proves what glory awaits him at the resurrection, and urges imitation of Paul in life as well as faith.
13. 5.1On 2 Tim 2:11–13, Chrysostom explains that those who share Christ's death, in baptism and in suffering, will share his life, that endurance to the end is needed, and that denying Christ brings his denial in return.
14. 5.2Chrysostom explains that our denial cannot harm the unchanging God, warns against fighting about words and novel doctrine such as the claim of Hymenaeus and Philetus that the resurrection is past, interprets God's “seal” as departure from unrighteousness, and shows that injustice torments the conscience of those who commit it.
15. 5.4Closing Homily 5, Chrysostom describes how the unjust are tormented by fear, the contempt of others and, above all, by the approach of death and judgment, and encourages his hearers that repeated preaching bears fruit in the end, like the blows that finally fell a tree.
16. 6.1On 2 Tim 2:20–23, Chrysostom explains that the “great house” is the world, where God makes use even of the wicked, while in the church all should be gold; that being gold or clay depends on choice, not nature; and that “youthful desires” include every disordered passion.
17. 6.2On 2 Tim 2:23–26, Chrysostom forbids contentious questionings, urges teachers to correct opponents with gentleness and endless patience, teaches that a sinful life holds one in the devil's snare even with right faith, and insists that almsgiving, not fasting or virginity, makes us like God, while alms from robbery are an insult to him.
18. 6.4Concluding Homily 6, Chrysostom teaches that hands are cleansed by righteousness, not water, and that offerings and prayers must be clean of greed; he urges the habit of almsgiving, by which God sells eternal life for small things, and denies that stolen goods ever become the robber's own.
19. 7.1On 2 Tim 3:1–7, Chrysostom says that the evil of the last times lies in people, not the times, traces the vices Paul lists back to disregard of one's neighbour and self-love, shows from Cain, Esau and others that despising one's brother leads to despising God, and describes the lover of money as incurably ungrateful.
20. 7.2Chrysostom portrays the lover of money as one who would wish the whole world destroyed to have its gold, a sufferer from a boulimia of the soul, and shames his hearers, who do not love God as much as such men love gold nor risk enmity for the oppressed.
21. 7.3Chrysostom shames Christians who love God less than misers love gold, praises love as the root of all goods that dissolves every sin, and holds up the friendship of Jonathan and David, who kept faith with Jonathan's descendants after his death.
22. 7.4Concluding Homily 7, Chrysostom urges widows to stay faithful to their dead husbands—not forbidding second marriage, which Paul permits, but praising true widowhood of prayer and almsgiving—and shows from Job that a house rooted in almsgiving is protected by God.
23. 8.1On 2 Tim 3:1–7, Chrysostom shows that falsehood has always stood beside the truth, from the serpent to the antichrist, explains the vices Paul lists, and argues that a “form of godliness” without power is right faith without works, a dead image.
24. 8.2Chrysostom explains the “silly women” led astray by the false teachers, the magicians Jannes and Jambres, how error is soon exposed though it keeps inventing new doctrines, and how Paul's teaching, life and endurance of persecutions at Antioch, Iconium and Lystra should encourage Timothy.
25. 8.3On 2 Tim 3:12–15, Chrysostom teaches that the life of virtue is a contest that always brings affliction, explains why God punishes some wicked men in this life and not others, and praises the Scriptures Timothy learned from infancy as the root of firm faith.
26. 8.4Chrysostom warns against prying into God's unsearchable ways, sets out “rules” (virtue alone is good, poverty and sickness indifferent, the righteous afflicted to be crowned, not all sinners punished here) by which the Scripture-taught Christian is never scandalized, and explains that soothsayers' predictions come true only because those who believe them have put themselves in the devil's power.
27. 8.5Concluding Homily 8, Chrysostom mocks soothsayers and magicians, who could not even foresee the plundering of their own temples, warns Christians that consulting them is slavery and idolatry, and contrasts their petty predictions with the sure promises of resurrection and eternal life revealed by Christ.
28. 9.1On 2 Tim 3:16–4:3, Chrysostom explains that Paul offers the consolation of the inspired Scriptures, which make the man of God complete, before announcing his death, and teaches how to preach at all times, joining reproof and rebuke with exhortation, patience and love.
29. 9.2On 2 Tim 4:3–8, Chrysostom explains that Paul foretells false teachers so that Timothy may be sober and endure, and that Paul's words about the good fight, the finished course and the crown of righteousness are a dying father's consolation to a grieving son.
30. 9.3Concluding Homily 9, Chrysostom explains that those who love Christ's appearing receive him now by keeping his commandments, urges his hearers to rise from worldly things and stand on the rock of spiritual things, and teaches that suffering borne with thanksgiving, as by Job, is suffering for Christ.
31. 10.1On 2 Tim 4:9–16, Chrysostom explains why Paul, imprisoned and near death, calls Timothy to him, comments on Demas, Titus, Luke, Mark, the cloak and the books, and shows that Paul's mention of Alexander the coppersmith is a prophecy meant to strengthen the disciple, not a curse.
32. 10.2On 2 Tim 4:16–22, Chrysostom explains Paul's first defence before Nero, the “lion,” and his coming rescue from every sin; comments on the greetings, why the apostles did not heal Trophimus (to show human weakness and give God the glory), Linus as bishop of Rome, and the equal spiritual capacity of women.
33. 10.4Chrysostom teaches that God's grace is gained, as a trusted servant gains his master's favour, by caring for God's affairs rather than one's own, and urges his hearers to be “greedy” and “violent” for the kingdom of heaven, which, unlike earthly goods, grows the more it is seized.
34. 10.5Concluding the homilies on 2 Timothy, Chrysostom urges his hearers to seize the kingdom of heaven by violence, with the wakefulness of soldiers and the speed of robbers who flee with their prize, keeping far from the devil until they are safe.