2 Timothy 2:14-19 - The Approved and Disapproved

2 Timothy 2:14-19

14 Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. 15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 

16 But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. 17 And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, 18 who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some. 

19 Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”

There is much to consider in these few verses of this passage instructing Timothy of what to remind the readers when and now to heed.  We need constant reminding of even what we know and affirm is true from God’s word because we are bombarded with entanglements and distractions that the enemy uses in his spiritual disinformation campaign meant to hinder the gospel and those who bring such light into the darkness.  We therefore begin by avoiding useless arguments over the truth as we simply proclaim it and claim it as God’s words and not our own.  The Old Testament phrase, “it is written” still applies to the authority of the Lord whose breath uttered all the words of the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16-17) for His appointed apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20: 3:5) throughout time to record for us to hear and follow.  We then point to what God has said and that their arguments are with Him and not us as to the veracity of the gospel we present to them.  Our call then is to present ourselves to our Lord God as approved in His eyes and not the whims or desires of others.  We do this by first studying the scriptures diligently to cut them straight for correct interpretation in context of all God has said from the beginning that we do not face shame if we use personal interpretation (2 Peter 1:20-21) and are then shown to have misquoted God and led others astray (James  3:1-2) in our haste and zeal to influence and convince them to turn to Christ.  We are rather reminded to avoid empty stories that many substitute for the truth of the scriptures given to us from God’s mouth or face an increasing ungodliness in both ourselves and the hearers of misleading words.  Such fruitless and empty discussions of vain and useless matters only keep people from the need of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and these false narratives only add philosophical confusion and complexity to the simple but unpalatable truth of the gospel.  The example given here is of two such men who tried to change what God had said into falsely claiming the resurrection had already happened when the signs of those times according to the scriptures had clearly not occurred yet.  Such stories only spread swiftly and with spiritual deadliness as cancer ravages a physical body.  The bottom line to this is that God knows those whom He has chosen and called to Himself no matter what some say who do not know nor teach what God has said because they do not have His Spirit from a new birth of the regenerative work of God in their souls.  Those who constantly believe and teach contrary to the revealed word of God in the Bible are not necessarily even His, and we sometimes have a difficult time seeing the truth of their standing even in light of their lack of testimony in their lives.  But God knows the wheat from the tares and will sort it all out now or then in the end.  Nobody can fool Him even if they wander as wolves among the flock for now and mislead us; this is why we need to study and immerse ourselves in the understanding of God’s word to know truth (1 John 4:5-6) from error.  Finally, we who are truly His as evidenced by the presence of His Spirit in us (Romans 8:9, 1 Corinthians 2:12) and the life set in the direction of holiness, we are commanded to depart from sin, to put it to death as we run away from it (1 Timothy 6:11-12, James 4:7) like Joseph from Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39:7, 9, 12) trying to lead him into disobedience and iniquity.  If we are His, we will have evidence of that transformation of regeneration in ourselves and will not continue to pursue sin or teaching contrary to the word of God as we aim to be approved of God and not disapproved.  May we pursue truth by diligently studying and understanding the scriptures to live and speak rightly to honor God.