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Introduction

See the introduction to 1 Timothy.

Paul wrote 2 Timothy from prison; see the note on 2 Tim 1:8-11 below. Although Paul was imprisoned many times (2 Cor 6:5; 11:23), this imprisonment may have been the last one before he was executed.

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2 Timothy 1

2 Tim 1:1 – Behold a sampling of “the promise of life in Christ Jesus” doled out to us generously in the Bible.

John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

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John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,
John 11:26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

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John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

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Col 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

2 Tim 1:2 – In his first letter to Timothy, Paul addressed him as “my true child in the faith.” In this letter, it’s “my beloved son.” There has been no lessening of affection.

2 Tim 1:3-4 – Paul frequently makes reference to conscience because it is the compass that gives guidance to faith. Thus Paul is emphasizing a point previously made to Timothy.

1 Tim 1:19 keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.

2 Tim 1:5 – Recall what Luke told us about Timothy’s mother.

Acts 16:1 Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. And a disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek,

2 Tim 1:6 – A lot of people had a hand in Timothy’s faith. His grandmother, mother, Paul, and other elders.

1 Tim 4:14 Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery.

Faith comes by means of the word of God, but we can hear it through many people.

Rom 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

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1 Cor 14:36 Was it from you that the word of God first went forth? Or has it come to you only?

Therefore, let us always remember thankfully and pray for those who have spoken the word of Christ to us for to them we owe our faith.

2 Tim 1:7 – We live in a world of timid (intimidated) men. We should stand out without even trying.

2 Tim 1:8-11 – Paul wrote at least 5 of his 14 epistles from prison (see “Prison Epistles” under “Paul’s Letters” in Paul.) Talk about “redeeming the time” (Eph 5:16)! ***** Suffering for Christ always leads to glory in Christ (Suffering and Glory). ***** Saul of Tarsus was not called on account of his righteousness and neither were we; we are all called “according to His own purpose and grace.” ***** The “appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus” is yet another of the constant references to the Second Coming in the New Testament. ***** That He “abolished death,” meant, among other things, that people would stop going down to Sheol/Hades when they died. ***** This “life” is the same “life” Paul was talking about in the first verse of this chapter.

2 Tim 1:12 – Paul was ashamed of his sins, but not of the One who saved him from those sins by letting Himself get crucified. ***** When Paul writes “until that day” he is alluding yet again to the Second Coming.

2 Tim 1:13-14 – A preacher trades in words. Paul reminds Timothy here, as he did at the end of his previous letter, that the faithful preacher must be able to make the all-important distinction between “sound words” and useless ones.

1 Tim 6:20 O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”–
1 Tim 6:21 which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you.

The one is treasure and the other is trash. Let us teach our children – by word and deed – the difference between treasure and trash, especially when it comes to words.

2 Tim 1:15-18 – This letter is being written near the end of Paul’s earthly life. Recall that the last days is a time of falling away (apostasy) for many people. The true are being separated from the fake, the strong from the weak, the warriors from the sunshine soldiers. This makes the affection Paul demonstrates toward Timothy in the verses above all the more meaningful.

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2 Timothy 2

2 Tim 2:1 – The grace of Jesus is found on His lips.

Ps 45:2 You are fairer than the sons of men;
Grace is poured upon Your lips;
Therefore God has blessed You forever.

That’s why we read the Bible every day – because it’s where the words of the Lord Jesus can always be found. The prophets spoke for Him in the Old Testament, and the apostles spoke for Him in the New Testament. And, of course, He speaks for Himself in the red letters. Yes, He speaks by His Spirit today, too, but nothing grounds you quite as strongly as what you can read in black and white and red. It’s the foundation upon which the Spirit’s utterances can be firmly laid.

2 Tim 2:2 – Following this instruction will save four generations:

You – “me”
Your children – “you”
Your grandchildren – “faithful men”
Your great-grandchildren – “others”

I’m not saying this is the exact way Paul meant it, but I’m confident he wouldn’t be displeased if you applied it in this fashion.

2 Tim 2:3-4 – The man is a sentry, guarding his family – physically and spiritually. He’s a fighter and doesn’t have time to involve himself in tasks of lesser importance than the well-being of his family. Does such a man need rest and recreation? Yes, but not the kind that makes him forget he’s a soldier in a time of war.

2 Tim 2:5 – The man is not just a soldier; he’s also an athlete.

2 Tim 2:6 – The man is not just a soldier and an athlete; he’s also a farmer.

Paul uses these same three metaphors – soldier, athlete, farmer – in his first letter to the church in Corinth (1 Cor 9:7, 9-11; 24-27).

2 Tim 2:7 – WHAT A PROMISE! And it can be considered to apply to the entirety of the Bible.

2 Tim 2:8 – Wise teachers teach the basics…and keep going back to them over and over. We don’t need a new gospel to get fresh teaching; we just need to go deeper into the one we’ve already got.

2 Tim 2:9 – What kind of world is this we live in that the Creator’s spokesmen are thrown into prisons? A world not worthy of such men.

Heb 11:37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated
Heb 11:38 (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.

Yet God so loved this very world that He sent more than great men – He sent Himself.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

If He loved this world, we should, too. For we were once of it, though we are no more.

1 John 3:1 …For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

From where do Pauls come? From the Sauls of Tarsus.

2 Tim 2:10 – Preachers like Paul and Timothy plucked us out of the world that we might partake of the salvation which is in the Son of God.

2 Tim 2:11-13 – This looks like another one of those hymns or mnemonic aids the NT church formulated to teach and encourage each other in the faith – such as we see in 1 Tim 3:16 and such as we see alluded to in:

Eph 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
Eph 5:19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

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Col 3:16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

2 Tim 2:14 – There are “sound words” such as those Paul mentions in 1 Tim 6:3 and 2 Tim 1:3. And then there are words of “worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge” (1 Tim 6:20). A wise man knows the difference.

2 Tim 2:15 – Let this be our standard as leaders and teachers of our families. And let us only marry women worthy of being full partners with us in this effort.

2 Tim 2:16-17 – Ah, the kind of words we want to avoid. Words that lead nowhere – at least nowhere good.

2 Tim 2:17-18 – “Hymenaeus and Philetus” are like the false teachers in Thessalonica who, in similar fashion, declared prematurely that the day of the Lord had already come (2 Th 2:1-4). Such people did as much harm to the true faith as false teachers who tried to kill hope in the resurrection completely (1 Cor 15:12). Jesus Christ has indeed already come, but He didn’t come before the apostles said He would. Just because there were people in the New Testament who wrongly said the day of the Lord had come when it hadn’t doesn’t mean that everyone who ever says the day of the Lord has come is wrong – unless the day of the Lord means Jesus physically appearing to all of humanity at the same time and history as we know it ceasing. But that’s not what Jesus and the apostles taught about the day of the Lord. Nor is it what the Old Testament prophets taught.

Is 13:6 Wail, for the day of the LORD is near!
It will come as destruction from the Almighty.

As long as Jerusalem was still standing, the day of the Lord couldn’t have come. For a full explanation, see the book The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact.)

2 Tim 2:19 – In other words, if your heart is the Lord’s, He knows it. And if you call on His name, make sure you’re not putting a ding in His reputation.

2 Tim 2:20-21 – Don’t aspire to mediocre service for the Lord; aspire to great service because your wife and children are that important to Him.

2 Tim 2:22 – We outrun lust with our zeal for the Lord.

2 Tim 2:23-26 – Too many men quarrel with their children…if they engage with them at all. There are no winners in a quarrel. Your children will let you win quarrels when they’re younger because you’re so much bigger. But they’ll seethe inside at the unfairness of their loss. And once they’re teenagers, they may even become openly defiant. But just know that when they resist your authority, they’re in Satan’s grip and a consistent gentlemanly approach from you can free them from his grasp. I don’t say it’s easy, but I do say you’ve got the Lord on your side when you’re trying to get your children to do right in His eyes.

Is 54:17 “No weapon that is formed against you will prosper;
And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD,
And their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD.

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2 Timothy 3

2 Tim 3:1-9 – As it was in the last days of ancient Israel, so it is in the last days of modern America.

2 Tim 3:10-13 – Paul’s life experiences give Timothy reason to believe that 1) persecution will always come against those who believe, 2) bad men will get worse in an environment of deception, and yet 3) God will deliver those who remain faithful to Him. Once Paul is gone, memories of him are all Timothy will have. Paul is making sure Timothy draws the right lessons from those memories. Paul was living proof to Timothy that faith in Christ was the right way to live to live in this world – that Christ would not forsake those who followed Him. We, too, should recognize that Jesus will deliver those Americans who are faithful to Him through these “difficult times” (verse 1) even though things will go from bad to worse around us.

But, “Mike,” some will say, “doesn’t God make the following promise?”

2 Chr 7:13-14 If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Yes, He does. And He has longed for us to call Him on it! But let me know when you see repentance in America. I’ve been looking for it since the early 1980’s when “Washington for Jesus” was a nationwide call to repentance that resulted in large crowds of people going to the nation’s capital to pray…but with no lasting, or even initially impactful, repentance having been undertaken by the nation. Our righteousness as a nation has only decreased since then. And now we fly “pride flags” at our embassies around the world. Yes, God makes the promise above in hopes that a wayward nation will take Him up on it, but there comes a point in a nation’s demise when it’s time to recognize that the ship can’t make it so we should shift our focus to preserving as many as possible of those onboard because the ship itself isn’t going to survive the storm (Acts 27).

2 Tim 3:14-17 – This passage is what they used to call an all-day sucker. You can meditate on it all day long. So much can be learned from these four verses – most of all, the importance and power of the Bible. Do not read the passage as four distinct verses; rather, read it as if it were one verse – one long sentence from Paul. I don’t need to break this passage down for you; rather, what’s needed is for you to simply ponder it with the promise of Paul from the previous chapter in mind:

2 Tim 2:7 – Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

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2 Timothy 4

2 Tim 4:1-8 – The first part of this passage (verses 1-5) is about Timothy; the next (verses 6-8) will be about Paul. Alas, we do not have – but desperately need – preachers like Paul and Timothy today. Let us beseech the Lord every day on this matter until He has pity on us and sends us spokesmen from His own heart.

Matt 9:36-38 Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

We do not need these preachers so much for ourselves because we, as men, recognize that we have the Bible and it is our individual responsibility to use it to “equip” (yes, I’m alluding to the last four verses of the previous chapter) ourselves and our families to live righteous lives. But our neighbors desperately need these God-sent preachers – how else are they to hear the gospel? We cannot save the world; we do well to help in the saving of our households. Maybe God will send some of us as preachers, but that is His call to make – not ours. Be careful to whom you reveal your faith. These are treacherous times.

2 Tim 4:1-5 – An evangelist preaches the gospel – no matter what. The gospel of Jesus Christ is an “eternal” gospel (Rev 14:6); it will never change and it should never be silenced. What God did in Christ must never be forgotten. Even when the gospel has been accepted by every sentient being in the universe – human or angelic – it should still be preached and appreciated because it reveals the character of God like nothing else. ***** Even when “myths” (verse 4) multiply and men turn aside to follow them, God’s evangelists keep on preaching the gospel. In our time, myths are indeed multiplying. Evolution was a myth brought to the world in the 19th century, and from it have come many other myths – the most recent being transgenderism. This latest myth could not take root in the ancient world because ancient men were too wise to fall for such an idea. Only modern men steeped in the myth of evolution for two centuries could be dull enough to accept transgenderism as realistic. (Transgenderism Is a Lie)

2 Tim 4:6-8 – May God grant you to be able to think and talk this way as the end of your earthly life approaches. You do not have to be a divinely-called preacher to speak this way, for you are a divinely-called man. Every single man is divinely called to be a loving husband and devoted father unless God has specifically called you to a celibate life as Jesus Himself was called. You were designed to be married, and to protect your wife and children.

2 Tim 4:9-10 – I can’t tell if Paul is saying that Crescens and Titus deserted him as Demas had…or if he’s only saying that those two were working for the Lord elsewhere at this time. Either way, Paul needs Timothy to come. And, if we’ve read the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of Paul for a sufficient period of time, we should be quick to recognize that Paul would never make such a request for his own sake. Rather, there must be must more he needs to say about the ministry, about ministers true and false, and about further preparation of the churches needed before the Second Coming – more than he could put in this letter. All the reminders and exhortations he has put in this letter are to sustain Timothy until he gets to Paul, or to sustain him indefinitely if Paul dies before Timothy can get to him. Saul of Tarsus has learned to think like Jesus.

Luke 6:40 “A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.”

2 Tim 4:11 – The writers of two of the four Gospels.

2 Tim 4:12-22 – This is the “Oh, and one more thing” section of the letter.

2 Tim 4:13 – This man, at this late stage of his life and all he’s been through, is not just still writing – he’s still reading! That is, he’s not just still teaching others, he’s still seeking to learn himself.

2 Tim 4:14-15 – Paul himself is not going to attempt to repay Alexander for his evil deeds, but Paul is going to warn others about him. Follow Paul’s example when others “vigorously oppose” what you teach your children.

2 Tim 4:16 – Seems like we’ve heard that somewhere before.

Luke 23:34 But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”…

2 Tim 4:18 – Like Peter, after a lifetime of service, Paul was granted that his death, like his life, would reflect the glory of the Lord. History outside the Bible tells us that both men were executed by the Roman government in the 60’s AD – before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

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