Well, every one of us as a Christian is called to serve the Lord and the local church.
The role of the pastor is an immense privilege that comes along with significant responsibilities. Today on Truth for Life, we'll find out why it's so important for pastors and teachers to be convincing but not quarrelsome as they defend biblical truth. Alistair Begg is concluding a study in 2 Timothy. Well, the verses to which we draw our attention are, as I say, the concluding verses of chapter 2. Let's think about it, then, in relationship to what the text says, first of all by noticing that Paul is reminding Timothy of what he first of all must not be.
He first of all starts negatively, this is what you mustn't be. The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome. He must know how to teach, but he must resist the temptation to quarrel. It's therefore imperative that he doesn't dive into the quarrelsome speculations that he's just referred to in verse 23. There's an inherent logic in this, isn't there? Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies.
Why? Because you know they breed quarrels. And since the Lord's servant is not to be quarrelsome, that wouldn't be a good thing to get yourself involved with. So when people try and trap you, Timothy, when they try and engage you in this way, make sure that you are not succumbing to that temptation. It's not a call to theological vagueness. It's worth reiterating that. We don't have to keep saying it. It's not a blanket negation of controversy on any front. Because Paul is very clear in the pastoralists that Timothy and Titus, like him, are gonna have to wage the warfare.
They're gonna have to be convinced and committed and hold true to the deposit and make sure that they live for it bravely and they guard it correctly and they preach it boldly and so on. So he's not all of a sudden at the end of chapter 2 saying, And by the way, I didn't really mean all of that. We don't have to worry about that. No, it's not that. It clearly is not that. What it means is that Timothy, in the execution of that ministry, must steer clear from silly and ill-informed discussions.
Silly and ill-informed discussions—things that are speculative, the kind of investigative approach which takes immense delight in trying to answer questions or conceive of things that we cannot answer with any conviction at all from the Bible. Now, there's no indication that Paul is saying this to Timothy because of Timothy's perceived character or personality—at least, none that I can find. Because when you think about what we know of Timothy or Paul's concern for Timothy—his concern for his youthfulness, let no one despise your youth—he's concerned that when he goes to represent him in other places, that the people in those other places will put Timothy at his ease.
So he's clearly not the fellow that just walks in the room and jumps up on the table and takes charge of everything. And also that he is not necessarily the most robust of individuals physically—hence the exhortation to Timothy—to take a little wine for his stomach's sake. That's not a comment on his palate or on his eating habits, but it is an expression of the fact that these things are known to be true of Timothy. So if the exhortation is a necessary exhortation, which it obviously is, and it's not an exhortation that is directly tied to the character of Timothy, it clearly must be tied to the character of the congregation in Ephesus—to the context in Ephesus.
And actually, I believe it is. If you turn back two pages to 1 Timothy chapter 6, you find that Paul is ending his first letter in a very similar fashion. He urges upon Timothy, of course, again, to teach and to urge these things—the importance of service in the framework of their everyday routine and not being disrespectful individuals and so on. And then he says in verse 3 of 1 Timothy 6, if anyone teaches a different doctrine and doesn't agree with the sound words—that is, the healthy words—of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.
Okay? So when Paul says, I want you to be kind to everyone, his kindness includes the kind of clarity which he provides here, where he doesn't name an individual but he names a type of individual, a type of individual who's got a fat head, a big mouth, and a small brain. And he is an absolute menace to everyone around him. That individual has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words. That's this kind of individual that he has in mind. They're nothing they like better than a kind of theological argument or an argument about the genealogies of Matthew's Gospel or an argument about the ten toes on the beast in Daniel or an argument about the seven churches of Revelation or an argument about the millennium or whatever else it might be.
They're never happier than when they get to that material. And he says, This is not going to be good, because those kinds of quarrels about words produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of truth. Okay, I think we got a point, Paul.
I think we hear you very, very clearly. So what you're saying is this, that since I, Timothy, have to speak the truth in love, Ephesians 4, I have to guard against the temptation of actually forgetting the love part, getting so stirred up about the truth part, that I actually become fond of the kind of argumentation and the aggressive posture that you're saying shouldn't mark my ministry. To which, Paul, I think we know it.
Yes, that's right. In other words, Timothy may be convincing, but he mustn't be combative. It's okay for Timothy in his teaching to be persuasive, but he mustn't be pugilistic.
You don't want to find Timothy all with his boxing gloves on, just always looking for someone that he can fight. No, as the pastor of the church in Ephesus, he's to be able to teach, but he mustn't be quick to quarrel. And certainly not over issues of speculation rather than issues of revelation. I think that's probably what Paul has in mind, Calvin suggested—and who am I to disagree with Calvin?—but the idea of discussions that are not really about revelation, ultimately, but they're about speculation. So you can't really address them from the Scriptures in the end. There's no definitive answer in the end.
So it's just entirely unhelpful. It just goes crazy with relative speed. Timothy, you need to be very, very careful about this. Now, let me just say a word to you concerning how this works out in pastoral ministry. Take you a little behind the scenes, as it were.
At least for me—I don't speak for all of my colleagues in this—most of my colleagues are far better at this than I am. But the danger of getting involved in this stuff I don't find comes with an email that says, I'd like to have a meeting, and so on. No, the greatest danger, I would say, is two minutes after the benediction.
Two minutes after the benediction. When people immediately begin to descend upon you if you let them. Which is one of the reasons I don't let you.
Not because I don't like you or because I don't want to talk to you, but because I can't trust myself. And so I've tried to learn from people who are really good at this. And Dick Lucas, who's been here with us in the past, I've watched him when I've been at services with him. He's a far more able fellow than me, and so he does actually mingle. He is present, but not necessarily engaged. He's masterful at this.
He has a coffee. He carries it around. And people will just come up to him and say things like, Mr. Lucas? Yes.
I'd been attending a conference this past weekend, and there was a very, very wonderful speaker, a terrific speaker, and he explained that if you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you immediately speak in tongues. And I was wondering what you think about that, Mr. Lucas. Well, that is a wonderful insight. Thank you very much indeed.
Thank you. At first I thought, What's up with Lucas? Then I realized that he's not going to start quarreling over this stuff. He's got a view on all of that, I can tell you.
And he holds it firmly. But he's not going to be sucked into one of those conversations five minutes after the benediction. First of all, then, Timothy, this is what you mustn't be.
Secondly, this is what you need to be. And it gets even worse. Now we go onto the positive side. The servant's disposition, which is what is really being described here—the prevailing tendency, the default mechanism of Timothy as the pastor, the characteristic attitude of Timothy—is, in essence, to be Christlike. Christlike. Just look at it. We don't need to work heavily on it.
It's straightforward. Kind. But not just kind. Kind to everyone.
Why does it have to say everyone? Why can't I just be kind to whoever I want to be kind to? After all, they're not all kind to me. Why don't I just be kind?
No. Kind to everyone. This is Jesus, isn't it? That you will love your enemies, that you will do good to those who treat you poorly. Kind even to those who oppose you, Timothy. And then he says again—and I find this quite interesting. I want to do you—once again, he says, unable to teach, apt to teach. When Timothy teaches, he's going to have to not only affirm what is true, but he's also going to have to correct what is false. And in affirming what is true and correcting what is false, it's important that he doesn't become argumentative in the process. I think that's probably why he mentions it, because it then immediately goes on to say that he is able to teach and patiently enduring evil. What do you mean, you endure evil when you teach? Yeah. How is he going to absorb the unkindnesses of those who oppose him, who question his motives, who complain about his style?
Whatever it might be. Well, he has to do so with patient endurance. He must at the same time be able to handle the foolishness of people without becoming resentful and without bearing grudges. Then he goes on, correcting his opponents with gentleness. It doesn't say he should just be gentle to them and therefore there should be no correction.
That would be easy enough. I mean, frankly, gentleness that just says nothing matters, you walk away—which is not what Dick was doing—or a kind of corrective, argumentative, combative approach, that's relatively easy as well. But to correct with gentleness, we're going to need to be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And Paul, of course, was able to say this because he lived it. When he writes to the Thessalonian church, he's able to say that he, and Timothy, and—is it Silas? I don't recall—but he and his colleagues, when they ministered amongst the church in Thessalonica, they treated them the way a father treats his children, but more strikingly, he was able to say to them, We were gentle among you like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So he says, Timothy, I want you to do the same. Well, in other words, as I said at the beginning—and we'll come to the third point now—but at the beginning, that this is nothing other than Christlikeness. That when Jesus, in Matthew 12, describes himself, he reaches back into the servant songs of Isaiah, and he says, This is in fulfillment of all that the prophets spoke concerning the servant of the LORD. And essentially, he's saying, if you're looking for the one who doesn't snuff out the smoking wicks, who doesn't break the broken reeds, who doesn't shout out in the street, who submits his back to the smiters, who when he's reviled does not revile in return, and so on, he says, if you're looking for that individual, you don't need to look any further, because I am that individual. Jesus is that individual. And so what Paul is saying to Timothy is, Timothy, strengthen by the grace that is in Jesus.
Make sure that you are increasingly becoming like Jesus. Now, why is this so important? Well, it is for a number of reasons, not only for the development of Timothy's character but also on account of Timothy's influence in the congregation. Because as we saw a couple of weeks ago in the letter that Thornton wrote to Simeon, the pastor in Cambridge, for fifty-four years, Thornton, as a businessman, writes to Simeon his pastor, and he says, Simeon, watch yourself.
Watch yourself. Don't let your ego run away with you. Make sure that you don't become this and this and this, because, he says, remember that as it goes for the minister, so it largely goes for the congregation. So Paul, he says to the readers of Titus, Titus, make sure that you remind your congregation, and I'm quoting from the beginning of Titus 3, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, to show perfect courtesy towards all people.
Now, here's the point, and it's pretty obvious, isn't it? If you have in your pulpit a pastor who is constantly argumentative, combative, quarrelsome, dealing in the minutia of questions that are largely unanswerable, then you will eventually have a congregation that becomes like that, if there's any congregation left. So they will either go away and say, I've got to find someone who is cutting the truth straight, or they're going to become just like that. That's why it's so important.
Because the way that the father is around the breakfast table is largely having an impact on the way his children will be when they ride the school bus or when they play with their friends. So the Lord's servant, in this case, Timothy, is to provide this kind of instruction from this kind of disposition, because God may perhaps grant them repentance. The sentence begins halfway through, verse 25 there. The NIV, I find more helpful in this.
I had it in my mind, I thought I'd made it up, but I went, and it's actually in the NIV. In the hope that… This is what you mustn't be, this is what you need to be, and finally, this is what you can't be. Because you're exercising this ministry, strengthened by the grace of God, in the hope that, through the exercise of this ministry, Timothy, God may grant repentance—a change of heart and of mind and of direction—leading to a knowledge of the truth, thereby setting people free from the ensnaring, deceptive activities of the evil one. So, again, the reason for all of this is gospel in its orientation. It's not just in order that Timothy might be a better kind of pastor, which he needs to be, and we all do. It's not that the congregation in Ephesus needs to get a hold of this so that they might be better lights in the wilderness of the world—which, of course, they must be—but it is in order ultimately that God may do what only God does, and that is grant repentance and a knowledge of the truth. In other words, that he might bring men and women to saving faith. That men and women might be converted. I take it that that's what Paul has in mind here. I've read the commentaries, and I've had the discussions, and some people think this is an esoteric little group of people with a peculiar problem.
Well, there are all kinds of people like that, but I don't think so. I think what he's saying here is that as you exercise this ministry, there are those who oppose the gospel, there are those who want to argue about all things that are supplemental to the gospel, and you shouldn't be upset by the fact that there are those who oppose you, but just make sure that you don't succumb to the temptation to fight with them. Just continue to do what you're being asked to do, and hey, who knows? You do it in the hope that God may grant them repentance. See, that's what men and women need. That's what we all need. We need God to grant us a change of heart, mind, and direction, because we're going in the wrong direction, and our hearts are bad and opposed to him, and our minds are all messed up by nature.
We're in error, and we're actually evil. People don't like to hear that. It's better to say, well, you know, you haven't been having a very good week, and perhaps next week you're going to have a good week, and maybe you haven't had a good Friday, and maybe next Friday will be a great Friday, and I just want to encourage you to go out and do your best. Some of you have been pulling your socks up like that for ages. If you pull your socks up anymore, there's no elastic left. Your socks can't even stay up.
Metaphorically, your socks are finished. There's no way. And yet you're unchanged. Religion hasn't changed you. Philosophy hasn't changed you.
Self-help books haven't changed you. Why not? Because the problem is that you are by nature evil, and you are in error. And until God shows you that, no amount of talk from me or from any of my colleagues will disavow you of your present position.
So you see how wonderfully liberating this is? Now, Timothy, by the grace that is in Jesus, this is what you mustn't be. Don't be a combative quarreller. Now, this is what you need to be, strengthened by the graces in Christ Jesus, but just remember what you can't be. You're not gonna be able to open blind eyes. You're not gonna be able to grant repentance. But God may grant repentance. You see, behind the scenes, behind the scenes in this encounter and in every time that the gospel is preached—and I owe this insight to John Stott—behind the scenes, what can't be seen here or is observed out there, is the unseen reality which Paul refers to as an encounter and an engagement, not in a fight against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places. That by our nature, we are actually enslaved.
We are not thinking properly. We're not gonna be able to escape from the snare of the devil who captures us to do his will unless we cry out to God to do for us what we can't do for ourselves. So the role of the pastor and the teacher, strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, is to point away from himself to Christ Jesus to the one who calls men and women to repentance and to faith. It is the very heart of God. I urge that supplications and prayers and intercessions and thanksgiving be made for all people. Pray for all of them that they may lead a peaceful and a quiet life.
This is good. It's pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. You can't come to a knowledge of the truth without being saved. And until you come to a knowledge of the truth, you won't be saved. And the only way that you can come to a knowledge of the truth is when God taps you on the shoulder and says, Young man, young woman, Mr. Businessman, has he tapped you?
Have you responded? He doesn't bust her into your life. He's lovely. He's gentle. He's a shepherd.
You can trust him. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. Today's message wraps up this volume of our study in 2 Timothy. If you missed any of the messages in this series, you can catch up online. All of Alistair's teaching can be heard or watched for free using our mobile app or online at truthforlife.org. We're currently in volume 2 of 2 Timothy, but you can find all four volumes when you search for a study in 2 Timothy. And if you'd prefer, you can purchase Alistair's teaching through both 1st and 2 Timothy. The complete series is available on a USB for our cost of just $5 at truthforlife.org slash store.
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