2 Timothy 2:14-26
In this life we all grapple with “who we are” or “who we want to be”. The society and our culture dictate what is acceptable. We all have things that attribute to who we are and many times we define who we are by
-This that we do…
the way we dress, what music we listen too, our choice in hobbies, what profession or career we are in, what college we chose, what we drive, where we work, where we live how many children we have or don’t have.
0r by
-Things that happened to us…
Divorce of parents, personal divorce, death of someone close, victim of abuse, or simply as we find in the warning here of how we have been lied to.
Those things all build into “who we are” and the things we do and the things we say are a response of that environment
What Paul is communicating to Timothy here and what he wants Timothy to communicate to the people is… the things we do and the words we say do not come from “who we are” but “whose we are”.
Who you belong to impacts your life.
You may be saying “I belong to myself so I am all good” I would say what Thomas Brooks the Puritan would say. “You have taken Satan’s bait” and guess what you may not know it but if you do not belong to the Lord you belong to Satan.
Paul in this passage goes on to describe how people who belong to Satan will often act and how people who belong to the Lord should act and actually in this case react.
So the reminder or the lesson we learn here is…what you do and what you say and what you do not do and say you are going to show others
“who” you belong to…Jesus
Vrs 14-19 Remind…of who you belong too and how we should act because of that. GOSEPL = belonging to the Lord
• Don’t (like those who do not belong to the Lord)
-Quarrel about words (ruins the hearer) (Radio preachers defining themselves by what they are against) Vrs 14
-Babble (talk to hear yourself talk) Vrs 16-18 “I am just thinking out loud” (Lead people away) “No inner monologue”
“spread the gangrene” it is like a disease dis-ease. The two men were just causing bad doctrine and theology to spread.
• Do (those who do belong to the Lord)
-Handle the Word rightly Vrs 15 (learn, study, pray)
-Realize you can’t pull one over on the Lord Vrs 19 “He Knows”
-Depart from sin Vrs 19b (Jesus said to the women “Go and sin no more) if you want to be a vessel that is used for righteousness you must flee wickedness
• When we act like the one we belong to we are actually used by our owner
Vrs 20-21 if we are obedient to Him we will be useful to Him. A huge motivation of your Christian life should be “I want to be useful to Jesus”
Back to the Do’s and Don’ts Vrs 22-25a
• Do
-Flee youthful passions Vrs 22 (Act mature) Paul said when I was a child I acted like a child
-Pursue Virtues Vrs 22 (faith, love, peace and pure heart)
-Kind to all Vrs 24 Jesus said pray for those who persecute you.
-Able to teach (formal and informal) Vrs 24 (We all informally teach)
-Patient when wronged Vrs 24 (How do I deal with people when the wrong me) Think of Jesus going to the cross
-Correct with gentleness Vrs 25a
• Don’t
-Get involved in controversies Vrs 23 (Our cause is the Gospel)
-Look for a fight Vrs 24 (attitude…I would knock his head off)
Vrs 25b-26
Notice…It is not just doing right for our own personal benefit as much as it is for the Lord and to win others
…This is what we become useful for…
The Goal is to win those who are lost…notice it is not to prove we are right, to make society better, to promote our personal agenda it is so others come to faith in Christ.
The goal should never be “I told them” or “I got my way” the goal should be bring glory to Jesus and one major way we do that is winning others to Him.
So when we do things as believers we have to ask “How is the promoting Jesus and Gospel centered living among the people.
Vrs 26 sums up why we should be gentle and not quarrelsome with opponents…because they are held captive by Satan. They have not come to their senses and if we deal ruthlessly or bitterly with them we are not being an example of Jesus
Understand this we are in battle…Satan and his demons are owning people and we are trying to focus and follow Christ to such a degree that others can know the steep price that Jesus paid to buy them back. 2 Cor 4:4
So it is not “who you are” it is “whose you are”
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