2 Timothy 2:14-26
Wednesday, 14 September 2022
“And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient…” -2Timithy 2:24
Apostle Paul was nurturing the future Church leader in Timothy through the epistles 1st & 2nd Timothy, who later became the Bishop of the church of Ephesus. It is amazing to see that, now even after 2000 years these epistles are very much relevant to the believers, as if it has been written personally to us. This is the uniqueness of the true word of God!
The key verse lists one of the attributes for a “servant of God” as the ability to teach. This quality assumes great importance in today’s world also, considering the severe problem of false teachers and false teaching the church faces nowadays, more than ever. A similar situation is found in today’s scripture reading portion; two of the earlier disciples of Apostle Paul left the true teaching by him (2Timothy 2:18). As the next verse (2Timothy 2:19) says the foundation of God stands sure and it does not depend on men, but it is evident that true teaching is essential to direct many of the saved people in the right direction and unsaved ones to get “saved” and hence “teaching” is a very important function in the church..
From the new testament we see the Lord Jesus Christ teaching, most of the time during His ministry on earth and His last commandment was to Go and Teach all the nations (Matt. 28:19-20). In 1Cor. 12:28 we see that the teachers are appointed by God Himself, like all the authorities and hence they should do a good job by teaching. But the greatest of teachers is the Holy Spirit as we see in John 14:26: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you”
The importance given to teachers makes learning also equally important by those who are being taught. Learning helps us believers to understand clearly what we are believing, articulate our belief and defend our belief or faith when needed.
In Matthew 22:37, Jesus answers the” expert in the law” his question about the greatest of the commandments “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. As Theologian W L Craig says “learning about the word of God, whole heartedly is the expression of Loving God with all our mind and is part of obeying the greatest of the commandments by Him.”
Even though Jesus the master craftsman who ordained this universe, is the all-knowing one and didn’t need to learn anything, for us our greatest example in learning also is the Lord Jesus Christ. In Matthew 11:29 He says, “Place my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble, and you will find rest for your souls.” This rest is given to all who are saved and is in Jesus by learning from Him, while living here. And for this rest for the souls of imperfect people like us, He has paid the price with His Precious Blood. It is the duty of each one of us to learn the word of God, practice it in our life and then teach or share with others according to our calling.
Think on it: “Keep my commandments, and live; and my teaching, as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the tablet of thy heart.” (Proverbs 7:2-3)