2 Timothy 2:14 - Meaning and Application

Having encouraged Timothy to suffer well, Paul now turns to how he must serve. Timothy’s task was to build up those under his care by reminding them of truths they already knew. That is a large part of a minister’s work, not always to bring new ideas, but to bring people back to what God has already taught them.

Paul also tells him to charge them not to fight over words. People who love arguments often quarrel about small matters, and those fights do real harm. They do little or no good, but they can pull listeners away from the important things of God and stir up unkind feelings that may damage the truth itself.

People are very quick to argue about wording, and such disputes usually only shake some people and ruin others. They are not merely useless, they are harmful. For that reason, ministers must warn people not to quarrel over words, and they are most likely to be heard when they do it before the Lord, that is, in his name and from his Word, showing the authority they have for what they say.

Paul then says, “Study to show yourself approved unto God” (2 Timothy 2:15). A minister’s main care must be to please God and prove himself accepted by him. That takes steady effort and discipline. He must be a worker, because he has real work to do, and a lazy or careless worker has reason to be ashamed. But one who stays faithful to his task has no reason to be ashamed.

What is that work? It is to rightly divide the word of truth. That does not mean making up a new gospel, but handling the gospel already given with care and accuracy. The minister must speak warning to those who need warning, comfort to those who need comfort, and give each person the right message at the right time (Matthew 24:45).

The word ministers preach is the word of truth, because its source is the God of truth. And it takes great wisdom, study, and care to divide that truth rightly. Timothy must give himself to this work so he can do it well.

Paul also warns him about what would hinder his work. He must avoid error and shun profane and empty babblings (2 Timothy 2:16). False teachers liked to boast about their ideas and arguments, but Paul calls their talk godless and useless. Once people grow fond of such talk, it leads them farther into ungodliness.

Error usually goes downhill. Once one wrong idea is allowed, many others soon follow. Paul says such teaching spreads like a canker, or gangrene, meaning it infects and destroys. When false teaching enters a church, it often spreads from one person to many, or leads the same person into more and more errors.

Paul names two men who had recently spread false doctrine, Hymenaeus and Philetus. By naming them, he marks them out publicly and warns others not to listen to them. They had gone astray from the truth, or from one of the central truths of the Christian faith.

The resurrection of the dead is one of the great teachings of Christ. These men did not openly deny it, because that would have directly opposed Christ’s word. Instead, they twisted it, saying the resurrection was already past. They claimed Christ’s teaching should be taken only in a spiritual or symbolic sense, meaning only a spiritual rising.

There is such a thing as a spiritual resurrection. But to use that truth to deny the future bodily resurrection at the last day is to set one truth of Christ against another. By doing this, they overthrew the faith of some and pulled them away from believing in the resurrection of the dead. And if there is no resurrection, no future life, and no reward for our service and suffering in the world to come, then we are, of all people, most miserable (1 Corinthians 15:19).

Anything that destroys the doctrine of a future life also destroys Christian faith. Paul had already answered this error fully in 1 Corinthians 15, so he does not repeat those arguments here. The babblings Timothy must avoid are empty and corrupting. Error is powerful, which is part of what makes it so dangerous. And those who twist the truth usually try to cover it with some believable excuse. Hymenaeus and Philetus did not reject the resurrection outright, but claimed it had already happened. Error, especially when it strikes at the foundation, will overturn the faith of some.