2 Timothy 2:24-26 (KJV)
And the servant of the
Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
In meekness instructing
those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to
the acknowledging of the truth;
And that they may
recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him
at his will.
Remember how we began
the chapter, 2 Timothy 2:2 (KJV)
And the things that thou
hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men,
who shall be able to teach others also.
Nothing has changed in
this chapter.
Paul is still training
Timothy in the kind of men who will be faithful to teach others also…
The focus is still on
how to carry the truth of God’s Word from generation to generation.
The chapter ends with a
sort of summary about what the servant of the Lord ought to be like.
First he,
*I. MUST TO BE GENTLE
Vs 24-25a
And the servant of the
Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
In meekness instructing
those that oppose themselves;…
· We are to strive to enter the strait gate[1]
· We are to strive together in prayer[2]
· We are to strive lawfully for masteries[3]
But in our relationship
with others, we are not to strive.
To strive means to
struggle, wrestle; to work at something.
I want to be seen as a
driven person in my own walk with the Lord, but not in my ministry with other
people.
Ministry ought to be
characterized by:
A. Gentleness
It means mild and kind.
B. Instructional
In my mind the most
helpful definition of this is, Isaiah 28:10 (KJV)
For precept must be upon
precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little,
and there a little:
C. Patience
In this case the word
means “enduring of ill.”
*D. Meekness
It was interesting to me
that the definitions of the words, Gentle and Meekness were the same, they mean
mild or kind.
So I drilled down a bit
deeper into the roots of these words and it seems to me that the primary
difference is that:
· The term for gentle has to do with our speech and
· The term for meekness has to do with our demeanor
We shouldn’t want to
intimidate people either with our word or our personality.
The servant of the Lord,
*II. MUST TO BE FAITH FULL
Vs 25b
In meekness instructing
those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them
repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
What I mean by faith
full is, “full of faith.”
In other words, the mark
of the servant of the Lord is that they trust God for the results of their
ministry to others.
You see, I should want
mastery over my own life, but not over yours.
The servant of the
Lord’s job is to patiently and persistently, here a little and there a little,
hand you the building blocks of the Word of God.
My job is not to make
you what I think you ought to be but to trust that God will do that in you.
The servant of the Lord
must have faith in God’s work in every man’s life or else he will be prone to
take over that work for himself.
Third, the servant of the
Lord,
*III. MUST TO BE CARE FULL
Vs 26
And that they may
recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him
at his will.
This verse turns the
attention of the minister of the Lord from his own qualifications to the
desperation of the lost.
It is a paradox in the
life of the servant of the Lord;
· On the one hand, he can’t try to wrestle people into the
strait gate
· On the other hand, he has to be filled with passion to get
them through it.
He cannot, he must not
try to force people to believe but
He has to care so
intensely that, if it were acceptable, he would do it.
Why?
Because those who are
lost are
Ensnared and
captured by the devil.
A snare – that’s what Israel was in when Babylon
surrounded Jerusalem.
Captive – that’s what they were when Babylon carried
them away from Jerusalem
The unsaved person is surrounded by the devil.
They are his and at his
disposal. They may not realize it, they may even think they have hope of
escape, but it is useless.
The unsaved person is at the devil’s mercy and
will
He can do with them
whatever he chooses to do whenever he chooses to do it.
How could we not care?
How could we not want to
do anything and everything in our power to help them?
2 Timothy 2:24-26 (KJV)
And the servant of the
Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
In meekness instructing
those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to
the acknowledging of the truth;
And that they may
recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him
at his will.
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