2 Timothy 2: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul tells Timothy to be strong in grace, to pass on what he has heard to reliable people who can teach others, and to endure hardship, using pictures of a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer. He points to the risen Jesus and to his own imprisonment, and quotes a saying about dying, enduring, denying, and God's faithfulness. He then warns against quarrels over words and names Hymenaeus and Philetus, who say the resurrection has already happened. The chapter ends with the image of containers in a large house and instructions on gentle correction of opponents.

Claim by Claim

1. 2:1
   • Paul addresses Timothy as his child.
   • Paul tells Timothy to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2. 2:2
   • Timothy heard things from Paul in the presence of many witnesses.
   • Paul tells Timothy to entrust those things to faithful men.
   • Those men will be competent to teach others as well.
3. 2:3
   • Paul tells Timothy to endure hardship along with him.
   • Paul tells Timothy to do so as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
4. 2:4
   • No one serving as a soldier entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life.
   • The soldier avoids such entanglement so that he may please the one who enlisted him.
5. 2:5
   • If someone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
6. 2:6
   • The farmer who labors ought to be the first to receive a share of the crops.
7. 2:7
   • Paul tells Timothy to consider what he is saying.
   • The Lord will give Timothy understanding in all things.
8. 2:8
   • Paul tells Timothy to remember Jesus Christ.
   • Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.
   • Jesus Christ is of the seed of David.
   • This accords with the gospel Paul preaches.
9. 2:9
   • Paul suffers hardship for that gospel.
   • Paul suffers to the point of being in chains.
   • Paul is treated as a criminal.
   • The word of God is not bound.
10. 2:10
    • Paul endures all things for the sake of the elect.
    • Paul endures so that the elect may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus.
    • That salvation comes with eternal glory.
11. 2:11
    • The saying that follows is trustworthy.
    • If we died with him, we will also live with him.
12. 2:12
    • If we endure, we will also reign with him.
    • If we deny him, he will also deny us.
13. 2:13
    • If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful.
    • He cannot deny himself.
14. 2:14
    • Paul tells Timothy to remind them of these things.
    • Paul tells Timothy to charge them before the Lord not to fight about words.
    • Fighting about words is of no profit.
    • Fighting about words ruins those who hear it.
15. 2:15
    • Paul tells Timothy to make every effort to present himself approved to God.
    • Timothy is to be a workman who has no cause for shame.
    • Timothy is to handle the word of truth rightly.
16. 2:16
    • Paul tells Timothy to avoid profane and empty talk.
    • Such talk will lead to more ungodliness.
17. 2:17
    • The word of such people will spread like gangrene.
    • Hymenaeus is one of these people.
    • Philetus is one of these people.
18. 2:18
    • Hymenaeus and Philetus have missed the mark concerning the truth.
    • They say that the resurrection has already happened.
    • They overturn the faith of some people.
19. 2:19
    • The firm foundation of God stands.
    • The foundation bears a seal.
    • The seal reads: the Lord knows those who are his.
    • The seal also reads: everyone who names the name of Christ must depart from iniquity.
20. 2:20
    • In a great house there are vessels of gold and silver.
    • In a great house there are also vessels of wood and of clay.
    • Some vessels are for honorable use.
    • Some vessels are for dishonorable use.
21. 2:21
    • If anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor.
    • Such a person will be sanctified.
    • Such a person will be useful to the master.
    • Such a person will be prepared for every good work.
22. 2:22
    • Paul tells Timothy to flee youthful desires.
    • Paul tells Timothy to pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace.
    • Timothy is to pursue these together with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
23. 2:23
    • Paul tells Timothy to refuse foolish and ignorant debates.
    • Timothy knows that such debates breed quarrels.
24. 2:24
    • A servant of the Lord must not quarrel.
    • A servant of the Lord must be gentle toward everyone.
    • A servant of the Lord must be able to teach.
    • A servant of the Lord must bear with wrong patiently.
25. 2:25
    • A servant of the Lord must correct those who oppose him with meekness.
    • God may perhaps grant those opponents repentance.
    • That repentance leads to a knowledge of the truth.
26. 2:26
    • The opponents may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil.
    • They have been taken captive by him to do his will.
    • It is unclear whether the captor and the one whose will is done are the same person.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

2:1

"My son" is not a claim about family. A teacher in this period commonly called his pupil his son or child, and Paul uses the word of Timothy throughout both letters to him.

2:2

Christian teaching at this point circulated mostly by word of mouth; written accounts existed but copies were scarce and expensive. "Among many witnesses" matters because a message taught openly, in front of a crowd who could check it, was far harder to distort than one passed on privately.

2:3

"Endure hardness" is 1611 English for putting up with rough treatment. The Greek verb carries a "with me" prefix: Paul is asking Timothy to take a share of the hardship Paul is already in, not just to be tough on his own.

2:4

"Warreth" means serves as a soldier, not fights a battle. Roman soldiers on active service were legally barred from trading, farming for profit, or getting drawn into business and lawsuits; the "him who hath chosen him" is the commanding officer who enrolled him and whose judgment his standing depends on.

2:5

"Strive for masteries" means compete in the athletic games. The prize was a wreath of leaves, not a metal crown. "Lawfully" means according to the rules of the contest, which at the great games included a sworn oath and a required period of training beforehand; a competitor who skipped either was disqualified however well he ran.

2:6

"Husbandman" is the ordinary King James word for a farmer. The picture is of the man who does the actual work having the first claim on what the land produces, ahead of anyone else with an interest in the crop.

2:8

"Of the seed of David" is a standard idiom for "descended from David." King David had been promised a lasting royal line, and descent from him was the expected mark of the deliverer Israel looked for, so the phrase is a claim about Jesus's standing, not a genealogical footnote.

2:9

"Bonds" means chains, and behind it lies literal imprisonment: a Roman prisoner awaiting trial was often chained by the wrist to the soldier guarding him. The force of the sentence turns on that image being physical, which is why the next clause can say the word of God is not chained.

2:10

"The elect" means those God has chosen. It was an old term for Israel that early Christians took over for their own communities; it is a way of naming a group, not a comment on any individual's prospects.

2:11

"It is a faithful saying" is a fixed formula used five times in the letters to Timothy and Titus, flagging a line already in circulation and known to the readers. What follows in verses 11 to 13 is rhythmic and balanced in the Greek and is generally taken to be a quoted hymn or confession rather than Paul's own composition on the spot.

2:12

"If we suffer" here does not mean "if we feel pain." The King James verb translates a Greek word meaning to hold out or stay under a load, so the sense is "if we endure." "Deny" in this verse is the same word used of Peter disowning Jesus in the courtyard: publicly saying you have no connection with someone.

2:14

"Charging them before the Lord" is the language of a solemn oath sworn with God as the witness, a legal register rather than a mild reminder. "Strive not about words" translates a single Greek verb for word-battling, arguing about terms rather than substance. "Subverting" is the word from which we get catastrophe and means being ruined or knocked over, not being tricked.

2:15

"Study" in 1611 meant "make an effort" or "take pains," with no reference to books. "Rightly dividing" translates a Greek word meaning to cut straight, used of cutting a straight furrow or a straight road; the sense is handling something accurately and without wandering off line, not carving the text into parts.

2:16

"Profane" in the King James does not mean foul language. It meant unhallowed or belonging outside sacred use, the opposite of holy. "Vain babblings" is a single Greek compound for empty noise, talk with no content.

2:17

"Canker" was the ordinary English word in 1611 for a spreading sore, and here it translates the Greek term for gangrene, tissue dying and the rot creeping outward into healthy flesh. The point of the comparison is the spreading, not the ugliness. A Hymenaeus is named in similar terms in 1 Timothy 1:20.

2:18

The claim that "the resurrection is past already" was not a claim that people had seen graves open. It reinterpreted resurrection as something purely inward and spiritual that had happened at conversion, leaving nothing bodily still to come. "Erred" translates a word meaning to miss the mark or go off target.

2:19

A "seal" here is an inscription. Large buildings in the ancient world carried cut lettering on the foundation stone naming the owner or builder, and seals more generally marked who a thing belonged to. The two quoted lines echo the words of Moses at the rebellion of Korah in Numbers 16: the first states who is recognized, the second what is required of them.

2:20

"Vessels" means containers and utensils of every kind, from serving dishes to chamber pots. A wealthy household had gold and silver ware brought out for guests and cheap wood and clay pots for daily and dirty work. "To honour" and "to dishonour" describe the job a pot is put to, not its moral character.

2:21

"These" is genuinely open in the Greek: it can mean the dishonorable vessels, that is, keeping clear of such people, or the wrong things just described, that is, cleaning out one's own behavior. Both readings have been held since antiquity. "Meet" is old English for fit or suitable, and "sanctified" means set apart for a particular use rather than left to general purposes.

2:22

"Charity" in the King James always means love, not giving money to the poor; the modern sense of the word had not yet taken over. "Youthful lusts" translates a phrase covering the whole range of strong desires associated with the young, ambition, temper and the urge to win an argument as much as sexual appetite.

2:23

"Unlearned" means uninformed or ignorant of the subject, not uneducated in general. "Gender" is the old verb meaning to breed or give birth to, related to engender: these arguments do not merely accompany fights, they produce them.

2:24

"Servant" translates the word for a slave, someone wholly at another's disposal. "Strive" here means quarrel or brawl, not try hard. "Apt to teach" means skilled at teaching, able to do it. "Patient" renders a Greek word with a narrower sense than ours: putting up with being wronged without hitting back.

2:25

"Meekness" in 1611 meant a restrained, unaggressive manner, closer to gentleness than to timidity, and it was a quality expected of people with power to use. "Those that oppose themselves" reflects a Greek form that can be read either as those who set themselves against the teacher or as those doing damage to themselves by their opposition; the King James keeps the double possibility. "Peradventure" means perhaps, and "acknowledging" means coming to recognize or know, not admitting fault.

2:26

"Recover themselves" translates a verb meaning to sober up, to come round after being drunk. The last clause has two different pronouns for "him" in the Greek and is genuinely disputed: it can mean held captive by the devil to do the devil's will, or captured by God's servant out of the devil's trap to do God's will. Translators have gone both ways since the earliest commentators.