WWUTT 688 Patiently Enduring Evil?

Patiently Enduring Evil in the Lord’s Service

The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness, and God may perhaps grant them repentance when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing, and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Paul’s Charge to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:22-26

Thank you, Becky. We're finishing up chapter 2 today in our study of 2 Timothy, and I'll begin reading in verse 22 and go to the end of the chapter. The Apostle Paul writes,. So flee youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. You know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.

God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses, and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. These verses were so incredibly important to me when I began my ministry as a pastor, when I took over the position of senior pastor at the church, where I still pastor now.

I felt like it was important when I stepped into that role to do a study of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. After all, these are the pastoral letters. It's the advice that Paul gave to his pastors, Timothy and Titus, in the respective assignments that they were given, in the work they were supposed to do.

And it was this section in particular, of 2 Timothy 2, verses 22 through 26, that really helped to kind of temper me a little bit. I had a passion, a zeal for sound doctrine. I've had that passion for years, since college.

It frustrates me when pastors don't teach rightly, that they don't explain the Word of God, that they impose themselves on the Word, instead of drawing out from God's Word what the Holy Spirit truly means to communicate.

And so, because of that zealousness for sound doctrine, I had a tendency to be a little overbearing, I think, in those that weren't as mature in their understanding of Scripture. It's not that I had cage-stage tendencies, you know, we use that term cage-stage to describe a person that needs to be locked in a cage until they can get over it, and then they can come out and talk to people about some of these deep doctrines and wonderful theology that they've come into, they just don't know how to rightly temper themselves.

It wasn't that I was in that stage. It's just that I could be a little bit much. We'll just put it that way. And these verses were so important for me to be reminded that I shouldn't be quarrelsome. I need to be kind to everyone.

And this also pointed me back to Romans chapter 15, where it says we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. As a pastor, I needed to be someone who was able to teach patiently enduring evil and correcting opponents with gentleness.

For my ability to argue or speak over a person was not going to win them to repentance. My job as a pastor was simply to teach the truth and God would handle that work of repentance, convicting the heart, the Holy Spirit, causing a person to mourn over their sin and see what it has been revealed to us through the word of God.

That's the work of the Holy Spirit on a person. It's not something that I can do by out arguing somebody or talking louder than them or any of those things. I am supposed to be gentle with the word of God, and it is God who will grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth that they have been spoken in gentleness.

And then they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil they were in, which we were all once in following after the pattern of this world, the passions in our flesh, as Paul talks about in Ephesians two, we've all been captured by Satan to do his will, born with original sin, a born inheriting the sin of our father, Adam.

We are born again into the righteousness of Christ. But before that happens, we're following in the will of the devil. And so as a pastor, I need to gently communicate the word of God, not try to out argue others or talk others down or insult people to coming to an understanding of the knowledge of the truth that doesn't work.

God does that work. He does the work of repentance. I am responsible to be gentle with how I present the truth. Whenever we talk about passages that give qualifications for pastors, what are the two passages that your mind probably goes to first?

Where do we read about qualifications for overseers and elders of the church? Well, we've already gone through one of those passages, and that's first Timothy chapter three verses one through seven. The next most popular passage is Titus chapter one verses five through nine.

Here is where we find a list of qualifications for a man to be an overseer of the church. But there's a couple of other passages that go along with that, and this is one of them. Second Timothy chapter two verses 22 through 26, Paul is talking about the responsibility that a pastor has, and he describes that man, Timothy or anyone else that is standing in the role of a pastor as the Lord's servant.

Verse 24, the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but he must be kind to everyone. And then the key is right there. The next one after the comma able to teach who has to be able to teach only the pastor.

He is supposed to be qualified as a teacher. Not everybody is going to have the gift of teaching, but a pastor must. So he must be able to teach. And in so doing, he must patiently endure evil. There are people who are following along with wrong doctrines that that have grown up in false teaching.

And it takes a long time of hearing the truth to wash out that toxic, that toxicity that they were imbued with for so many years coming under that false teaching. And so a pastor, as he does that work to help a person come to the knowledge of the truth, must patiently endure evil, not getting mad at a person because they don't get it the first, second or tenth times.

And he must also correct opponents with gentleness, understanding that it is God who grants repentance. So this passage here very much has to do with the responsibility of a pastor. 2 Timothy 2, verses 22 through 26, mark it along with the other passages that you have marked that list qualifications for overseers.

I mentioned there's another one in addition to this, and it's in 1 Peter 5, verses 1 -5. We went through that in our study of 1 Peter. But these four sections in 1 Timothy 3, 2 Timothy 2, Titus 1, and 1 Peter 5.

This is where we find lists of qualifications for an overseer of the church. It's not just limited to 1 Timothy and Titus. So at the start of this particular section in 2 Timothy 2 .22, Paul says to Timothy to flee youthful passions.

And we've had it mentioned before in the scriptures that we need to flee from sin, not just dance around it, not just kind of look at it, but then glance the other way, not think about it. We need to do everything that we possibly can to get our minds, our hearts, our bodies away from sexual temptation or sinfulness of any kind.

Do not even entertain the thought. Don't go anywhere near it. Run to God. Get away from the sin and the devil will flee from you. James gives that instruction clearly in James chapter four, flee from sin.

And as Paul says that here to Timothy, it has just as much urgency there as it has in 1 Corinthians 6, where Paul tells the Corinthians to flee from sexual immorality. He tells Timothy to flee from youthful passions.

But like I said yesterday, that's not just limited to sexual immorality. It could be that. It could be anger and malice. Since Paul goes on to talk about being kind to everyone, it could also be the material possessions of this world.

Don't go after the things of this world that you think that you need in order to be popular, successful, satisfied. It's all right to own things. It's not like it's wrong to buy stuff, but don't let that be your passion.

Don't let it consume your mind and your heart or lead you to believe that you need something in order to be happy or to be satisfied. For we are fully satisfied in Christ. We read right at the start of Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want. And your translations, the translation that you read may even say, I shall not be in want. We are fully satisfied with everything that we have been given in our savior, knowing that the reward that we're going to be given in eternity is far greater than anything this world has to offer, far greater than the next cell phone upgrade that you are going to get.

That's going to make you happy for a little while until you get frustrated with that phone and think that you need another one. There's nothing in this world that is simply going to satisfy us other than the hope of the promise that we have been given in Christ, that when we die, the grave is not our final resting place.

We have nothing to fear of the sting of death. We are promised eternity with Christ, our savior, for those who believe and endure to the end. Paul, again, urging Timothy to flee youthful passions. And you consider that Timothy is a very mature young man.

For Paul to be sending Timothy to Ephesus to pastor the church there, Timothy has a lot of maturity. He's a little bit younger than I am now at the time that Paul was writing this letter. And yet I would say Timothy was far more mature at the at the time that Paul wrote this letter, Timothy, than I am.

The experiences, the things that Timothy went through are far greater than any of the experiences that I have had. And yet Paul saw it very important to remind Timothy to flee youthful passions. None of us are above this.

None of us are above being told time and time again that we need to flee from sin. Stay away from those things that are the appetites of the flesh. Instead, focusing our full attention on Christ, our savior, looking heavenward for where our treasure is, there our heart will be also.

Understanding the words of Christ in Matthew chapter six, that we are to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And then all the other things that we need will be added to us as well. And that's exactly what Paul tells Timothy to do here.

Flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness. Actually just taught this passage to a group of high school students yesterday. Some students that come over from the high school, which is right next door to our church.

On Tuesday, we feed them lunch and we give them the word of God. Yesterday was a particularly small lunch because we're coming down on the last two Tuesdays of the school year before the students are out for summer.

So we had kind of a small turnout yesterday. But this was the section of scripture that I taught them from. And I asked the students, what does it mean to be righteous? Can anybody tell me what righteousness is?

When we're told to pursue righteousness, when Paul says it here, when Jesus says it in Matthew six, what does that mean? What's righteous? And, and I said, and not getting any answers, I said, what, what is the word that we have in just the first five letters of that word righteous?

And a young man spoke up and said, uh, right. I said, that's right. It's the word, right? And so righteousness is simply doing what is right. But how do we know what is right? What feels good to you? Is that what's right?

What you think is the, is the good thing to do for somebody else or for yourself? What is right is what God says is right. He is the creator of all things. He created the entire universe by simply uttering a few words.

So he has the right to determine what is right and what is wrong. And how do we find out what God has said is right and wrong? We read it here in his word. And we are able to rightly obey God when we are worshipers of Christ, when we have repented of sin and we have chosen to follow Jesus Christ, then we are able to worship God rightly and we're able to obey him in a way that is pleasing to God.

So we are to pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace can simply be summarized this way. We're to grow in our understanding and knowledge of God. That's faith. We're to grow in the love, the brotherly love that we show toward one another, that's love.

And we are to grow in a steadfastness and a perseverance in that faith, which brings peace. It brings a contentment because in Christ we have been given all good things. Paul talks about this more clearly in Philippians chapter four, where he says to the Philippians that the peace that surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

In Romans five one, we read since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul saying that we are to pursue these things, we're to flee from sin and pursue righteousness along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

And as I said yesterday, and I said, this is where we were going to stop and we were going to pick up again today, it's been 15 minutes into the devotional now, but it's also where we're going to conclude in our study of second Timothy chapter two, finishing up our study of this particular chapter.

So what does it mean to flee sin and pursue righteousness along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart? It's doing this together with the body of Christ, with the church. We hold one another accountable.

We are able to spot check our brothers and our sisters in the Lord to be sure that they are not going after that temptation, that they are fleeing and running instead to the righteousness of Christ. We have to work together in order to grow in love.

You can't grow in love by yourself. You have to be with other people in order to grow in love. Love is not simply a state of mind that you're just kind of sitting alone in one place and going, oh, I love this person more.

I love them. I love them. I love them. That's not how you grow in love. You grow in love by being with those people and putting their needs ahead of your own. You can only do that when you are part of the body of Christ.

The whole tone of scripture from the Old Testament to the New Testament teaches us about being with the people of God. No one worships as an island. We are meant to be a holy nation in Christ Jesus, as it says in First Peter, Chapter two.

And as we read in Titus, Chapter two, the book of the Bible that we're going to next when we finish our study of Second Timothy in Titus, Chapter two, it says that Christ gave himself up to purify for himself a people, not a person.

Have you ever heard that saying, even if you were the only person on earth, Christ would have died for you? Sounds nice, but it's not it's not reality. Christ did not die for an individual person. He died to purify for himself a people.

And so as we read here about growing in these things, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart, we're talking about people who have likewise been convicted by the Holy Spirit to cleanse themselves from what is dishonorable.

That was back in verse twenty one, so that they would be vessels for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. Be with other people that Christ is sanctifying.

He's sanctifying you. He's sanctifying them. It is with the church that we are to grow together in our knowledge and understanding of God and obeying that second greatest commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.

You do that together as the body of Christ. You cannot grow into the head of the church who is Christ by yourself. The illustration that Paul gives in Ephesians chapter four, it's all of the parts knit together growing in love that grows together into Christ Jesus.

And again, we need the church. You cannot grow in an understanding of God and in love for your brothers and your sisters by yourself. This past Sunday was Mother's Day, and Beth Moore made a tweet in which she said that if you don't feel like going to church, you don't have to.

Here is what she said. If you feel like sobbing, do if you feel like going to church on Mother's Day would crush your heart. Don't go. You won't lose your salvation because you don't want to go to church on Mother's Day.

Grab pen and paper and get alone with God and pour your heart out to him in full. But what is it that the scriptures say about when we have a heart that is mourning? Should we stay away from church on that day if our heart is mourning?

Here's what David wrote in Psalm 42 as a deer pants for flowing streams. So pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night while they say to me all the day long, where is your God?

These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. What is David's solution to the mourning that he is experiencing in his soul?

I want to go to church now, granted, this this was in an age before the church. It was the temple of God, not a not a church building. But nonetheless, that's the spirit that he is talking about there in Psalm 42.

He's talking in a spirit of wanting to be with the people of God and lead them in procession, in singing to the house of God, that we may appear before him together, praising and worshiping our Lord. That's David's response to the mourning and the hurt that he experiences in his soul.

So it's really bad advice for Beth Moore to say to moms, hey, if you're hurting, just don't go to church today. Sit down with pen and paper and get alone with God and pour your heart out to him in full.

And David says, these are the things I pour out of my soul, how I want to go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God. That's what I pour out of my heart. You know, there are going to be days and holidays that fall on Sundays that are not going to be inclusive of everybody or days that just might remind you of painful experiences.

My church is mostly military, and so when Memorial Day rolls around, that's a very serious day for a lot of soldiers in my church because they've lost friends, fellow soldiers in combat. But the mourning that they go through is not something that I would encourage them to go through alone.

I would never encourage somebody to mourn alone. Be with somebody who will hurt with you and pray with you and praise God with you who will be your strength to praise God even when you feel so weak in your mind and heart and flesh to do so.

This is how we benefit one another as the church. When we together pursue righteousness, faith and love and peace along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart and the peace that surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.

Let us deal gently with one another, for it is God who grants repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth. It was God who granted you repentance and open your mind, coming to your senses that you may know the will of God as it's been revealed in his scriptures.

And it is through the power of his word that you have escaped from the snare of the devil after formerly having been captured by him to do his will. Now you do the will of God, presenting yourself as a holy and pleasing sacrifice unto the Lord.

This is your spiritual act of worship. And as we worship, let us be all the more zealous to want to do that together as the church in the house of God. Amen?

Ministry Schedule and Closing

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.