Our relationship to Jesus now affects our relationship with him in the future: “For if we be dead with him [by baptism and by mortifying ourselves], we shall also live with him: if we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us”.vs.11-12Waiting for response for 2 Timothy 2:11-12 Therefore the apostle exhorted: “Study [meaning, give diligence] to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”.v.15Waiting for response for 2 Timothy 2:15 Many people wrest the scriptures, dividing the word wrongly. They take passages out of context and apply meaning to the words not intended by God, and they apply statements to the wrong people or the wrong times, undermining God’s truth. Some said “the resurrection is passed already” and overthrew some disciples’ faith.v.18Waiting for response for 2 Timothy 2:18 Such teaching was like a cancer in the Christian body,v.17Waiting for response for 2 Timothy 2:17 and there have been many such cancers since, such as “immortal soul possession”, “heaven and hell going”, “the trinity”, “a supernatural evil devil”. The only way to deal with a cancer in the body is to cut it out, and this is what the faithful disciples did: they withdrew fellowship from false teachers and delivered them to the adversary that they might learn not to blaspheme. It is the flesh and the thinking of the natural mind which is at enmity with God and leads men astray. This is a false accuser who has many traps v.26Waiting for response for 2 Timothy 2:26 to capture those who do not keep faithfully to the word of God. The only antidote is to teach them the knowledge of the truth as revealed in God’s word.v.25Waiting for response for 2 Timothy 2:25
Verses 1,3-4,8-10
Waiting for response for 2 Timothy 2:1,3-4,8-10The apostle used the figure of a disciplined Roman soldier to encourage Timothy in the face of persecution and the faithlessness of other disciples. He exhorted Timothy to “be strong”,v.1Waiting for response for 2 Timothy 2:1 to “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ”,v.3Waiting for response for 2 Timothy 2:3 to keep separate from the life of the world as a soldier does of civilian life “that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier”.v.4Waiting for response for 2 Timothy 2:4 He was to be encouraged by remembering “that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to Paul’s gospel” v.8Waiting for response for 2 Timothy 2:8 for which the apostle endured,vs.8-9Waiting for response for 2 Timothy 2:8-9 that the word of God might be published and that others might “also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory”.v.10Waiting for response for 2 Timothy 2:10