I wish to begin
our study of verse 20 with the same Barclay
commentary we read in the study of verse 18 as
verses 18-20 are covered in this commentary.
Dispatched on
God's Campaign
What then is entrusted to Timothy? He
is dispatched to fight a good campaign. The
picture of life as a campaign is one which has
always held immense fascination. Maximus of
Tyre said: 'God is the general; life is the
campaign; man is the soldier.' Seneca said:
'For me to live, my dear Lucilius, is to be a
soldier.'
There are three things to be noted.
1] It is not to a battle that we are summoned; it is
to a campaign. Life is one long campaign, a
service from which there is no release - not a
short, sharp struggle after which we can lay down
our weapons and rest in peace.
To change the metaphor, life is not a sprint;
it is a marathon race. It is there that the
danger enters in. It is necessary always to be
on the watch. as the Irish orator John Philpot
Curran had it: 'Eternal vigilance is the price of
liberty.' The temptations of life never cease
their search for a chink in a Christian's armour.
It is one of the most common dangers in life to
proceed in a series of spasms. We must
remember that we are summoned to a campaign which
goes on as long as life continues.
2] It is a fine campaign that Timothy is summoned.
Here again, we have the word kalos, of which
the Pastorals are so fond. It does not mean
only something which is good and strong; it means
something which is also attractive and lovely.
The soldier of Christ is not a conscript who serves
grimly and grudgingly, but a volunteer who serves
with a certain courage and gallantry. Christ's
soldiers are not slaves of duty, but servants of
joy.
3] Timothy is commanded to take with him two weapons
of equipment [that we will
study in this verse 19].
(a) He is to take
faith. Even when things are at their darkest,
he must have faith in the essential rightness of his
cause and in the ultimate triumph of God.
(b) He is to take the defence of a good conscience.
That is to say, Christian soldiers must at least try
to live in accordance with their own beliefs.
The message loses its strength and value when
conscience condemns the one who speaks.
~Barclay Commentary
Of whom is Hymeneus and
Alexander - Hymeneus is nowhere else
mentioned in the New Testament, except in 2 Timothy
2:17, where he is mentioned in connection with
Philetus as a very dangerous man. An Alexander is
mentioned in Acts 19:33, which some have supposed to
be the same as the one referred to here. It is not
certain, however, that the same person is intended;
see the notes on that verse. In 2 Timothy 4:14,
Alexander the coppersmith is mentioned as one who
had done the apostle “much evil,” and there can be
little doubt that he is the same person who is
referred to here. One of the doctrines which
Hymeneus held was, that the “resurrection was past
already” 2 Timothy 2:18; but what doctrine Alexander
held is unknown, It is not improbable, as he is
mentioned here in connection with Hymeneus, that he
maintained the same opinion, and in addition to that
he appears to have been guilty of some personal
injury to the apostle. Both also were guilty of
blasphemy. ~Barnes Notes
Quoted verses:
Where Hymeneus is elsewhere mentioned:
2 Timothy 2:17
And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is
Hymenaeus and Philetus.
Where Alexander is mentioned:
Acts 19:33
And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the
Jews putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned
with the hand, and would have made his defence unto
the people.
Here is the commentary on Acts 19:33
| And they drew
Alexander - Who this Alexander was is
not known. Grotius supposes that it was
“Alexander the coppersmith, who had in some
way done Paul much harm 2 Timothy 4:14; and
whom, with Philetus, Paul had excommunicated
[disfellowshipped].
He supposes that it was a device of the Jews
to put forward one who had been of the
Christian party, in order to accuse Paul,
and to attempt to cast the odium of the
tumult on him. But it is not clear that the
Alexander whom Paul had excommunicated [disfellowshipped]
was the person concerned in this
transaction. All that appears in this
narrative is, that Alexander was one who was
known to be a Jew, and who wished to defend
the Jews from being regarded as the authors
of this tumult. It would be supposed by the
pagan that the Christians Were only a sect
of the Jews, and the Jews wished, doubtless,
to show that they had not been concerned in
giving occasion to this tumult, but that it
was to be traced wholly to Paul and his
friends. ~Barnes
Notes |
Still now with the quoted verses of the first
paragraph of 1 Timothy 1:20 commentary above:
Where Alexander the Coppersmith is mentioned:
2 Timothy 4:14
Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord
reward him according to his works:
2 Timothy 2:18
Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the
resurrection is past already; and overthrow the
faith of some.
I want to look at the commentary on 2 Timothy 2:18
Who concerning the
truth have erred - To what extent
they had erred is unknown. Paul mentions
only one point - that pertaining to the
resurrection; but says that this was like a
gangrene. It would certainly, unless
checked, destroy all the other doctrines of
religion. No man can safely hold a single
error, any more than he can safely have one
part of his body in a state of
mortification.
Saying that the
resurrection is past already - It is
not known in what form they held this
opinion. It may have been, as Augustine
supposes, that they taught that there was no
resurrection but that which occurs in the
soul when it is recovered from the death of
sin, and made to live anew. Or it may be
that they held that those who had died had
experienced all the resurrection which they
ever would, by passing into another state,
and receiving at death a spiritual body
fitted to their mode of being in the
heavenly world. Whatever was the form of the
opinion, the apostle regarded it as a most
dangerous error, for just views of the
resurrection undoubtedly lie at the
foundation of correct apprehensions of the
Christian system; compare the notes at 1
Corinthians 15:12-19.
Let us read this reference in 1 Corinthians:
1 Corinthians
15:12-19
12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose
from the dead, how say some among you that
there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there be no resurrection of the
dead, then is Christ not risen:
14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our
preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of
God; because we have testified of God that
he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up,
if so be that the dead rise not.
16 For if the dead rise not, then is not
Christ raised:
17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith
is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in
Christ are perished.
19 If in this life only we have hope in
Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
We are going to want to look at the
commentary on verse 17, "ye are yet in your
sins" if Christ has not been resurrected:
Ye are yet in your
sins - Your sins are yet unpardoned.
They can be forgiven only by faith in him,
and by the efficacy [power
or capacity of] of his blood. But
if he was not raised, he was an impostor;
and, of course, all your hopes of pardon by
him, and through him, must be vain. The
argument in this verse consists in an appeal
to their Christian experience and their
hopes. It may be thus expressed:
(1) You have reason to believe that your
sins are forgiven. You cherish that belief
on evidence that is satisfactory to you. But
if Christ is not raised, that cannot be
true. He was an impostor, and sins cannot be
forgiven by him. As you are not, and cannot
be prepared to admit that your sins are not
forgiven, you cannot admit a doctrine which
involves that.
(2) you have evidence that you are not under
the dominion of sin. You have repented of
it; have forsaken it; and are leading a holy
life. You know that, and cannot be induced
to doubt this fact. But all that is to be
traced to the doctrine that the Lord Jesus
rose from the dead. It is only by believing
that, and the doctrines which are connected
with it, that the power of sin in the heart
has been destroyed. And as you “cannot”
doubt that under the influence of “that
truth” you have been enabled to break off
from your sins, so you cannot admit a
doctrine which would involve it as a
consequence that you are yet under the
condemnation and the dominion of sin. You
must believe, therefore, that the Lord Jesus
rose; and that, if he rose, others will
also. This argument is good also now, just
so far as there is evidence that, through
the belief of a risen Saviour, the dominion
of sin has been broken; and every Christian
is, therefore, in an important sense, a
witness of the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus, a living proof that a system which
can work so great changes, and produce such
evidence that sins are forgiven as are
furnished in the conversion of sinners, must
be from God; and, of course, that the work
of the Lord Jesus was accepted, and that he
was raised up from the dead.
~Barnes Notes
And overthrow the
faith of some - That is, on this
point, and as would appear on all the
correlative subjects of Christian belief;
compare 1 Timothy 1:19-20. |
Whom I have delivered unto
Satan - On the meaning of this expression,
see the notes on 1 Corinthians 5:5.
Quoted verse:
1 Corinthians 5:5
To deliver such an one unto Satan for the
destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be
saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
And now the verse's commentary:
Unto Satan
- Beza, and the Latin fathers, suppose that
this is only an expression of
excommunication [disfellowshipping].
They say, that in the Scriptures there are
but two kingdoms recognized - the kingdom of
God, or the church, and the kingdom of the
world, which is regarded as under the
control of Satan; and that to exclude a man
from one is to subject him to the dominion
of the other. There is some foundation for
this opinion; and there can be no doubt that
excommunication [disfellowshipping]
is here intended, and that, by
excommunication [dissfellowshipping],
the offender was in some sense placed under
the control of Satan. It is further evident
that it is here supposed that by being thus
placed under him the offender would be
subject to corporal inflictions by the
agency of Satan, which are here called the
“destruction of the flesh.” Satan is
elsewhere referred to as the author of
bodily diseases. Thus, in the case of Job,
Job 2:7. A similar instance is mentioned in
1 Timothy 1:20, where Paul says he had
delivered Hymeneus and Alexander to “Satan,
that they might learn not to blaspheme.”
Quoted verse:
Job 2:7
So went Satan forth from the presence of the
LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the
sole of his foot unto his crown.
For the destruction of
the flesh - We may observe here that
this does not mean that the man was to die
under the infliction of the censure, for the
object was to recover him; and it is evident
that, whatever he suffered as the
consequence of this, he survived it, and
Paul again instructed the Corinthians to
admit him to their fellowship, 2 Corinthians
2:7.
Quoted verse:
2 Corinthians 2:7
So that contrariwise ye ought rather to
forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps
such a one should be swallowed up with
overmuch sorrow.
That the spirit may be
saved - That his soul might be saved;
that he might be corrected, humbled, and
reformed by these sufferings, and recalled
to the paths of piety and virtue. This
expresses the true design of the discipline
of the church, and it ought never to be
inflicted but with a direct intention to
benefit the offender, and to save the soul.
Even when he is cut off and disowned, the
design should not be vengeance, or
punishment merely, but it should be to
recover him and save him from ruin.
In the day of the Lord
Jesus - The Day of Judgment when the
Lord Jesus shall come, and shall collect his
people to himself.
~Barnes Notes |
That they may learn not to
blaspheme - It cannot be supposed that Satan
would undertake to teach them not to blaspheme, or
that Paul put them under him as an instructor on
that subject. The instructions of Satan tend rather
to teach his followers to blaspheme, and none in his
school fail to be apt scholars. The meaning here is,
that Paul excommunicated [disfellowshipped]
them, and not improbably brought upon them, by
giving them over to Satan, some physical maladies,
that they might be reformed; compare notes on 1
Corinthians 5:5 [we did
this above]. It is not entirely clear
what is meant by blaspheme in this place; compare
notes on 1 Timothy 1:13 [part
of this lesson above]. It cannot be
supposed that they were open and bold blasphemers,
for such could not have maintained a place in the
church, but rather that
they held doctrines which the apostle regarded as
amounting to blasphemy; that is, doctrines which
were in fact a reproach on the divine character
[emphasis mine].
There are many doctrines held by people which are in
fact a reflection on the divine character, and which
amount to the same thing as blasphemy. A blasphemer
openly expresses views of the divine character which
are a reproach to God; an errorist expresses the
same thing in another way - by teaching as true
about God that which represents him in a false
light, and, to suppose which, in fact, is a
reproach. The spirit with which this is done in the
two cases may be different; the thing itself may be
the same. Let us be careful that we hold no views
about God which are reproachful to him, and which,
though we do not express it in words, may lead us to
blaspheme him in our hearts.
Note: The word
"reproach" means:
1. to express disapproval of.
2. criticism of.
3. disappointment in (someone).
4. as a noun, blame, rebuke, disgrace or shame.
Let us now finished in the Treasury of Scriptural
Knowledge:
I have delivered unto Satan.
Matthew 18:17
-part of the Matthew 18
Process
And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto
the church: but if he neglect to hear the church,
let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a
publican.
1 Corinthians 5:1-5
1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication
among you, and such fornication as is not so much as
named among the Gentiles, that one should have his
father's wife.
2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned,
that he that hath done this deed might be taken away
from among you.
3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in
spirit, have judged already, as though I were
present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are
gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of
our Lord Jesus Christ,
5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the
destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be
saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Notice the commentary on the latter part of verse 4:
With the power of
our Lord Jesus Christ- This phrase is
to be connected with verse 5. “I have
determined what ought to be done. The
sentence which I have passed is this. You
are to be assembled in the name and
authority of Christ. I shall be virtually
present. And you are to deliver such a one
to Satan, ‘by the power of our Lord Jesus
Christ.’” That is, it is to be done by you;
and the miraculous power which will be
evinced in the case will proceed from the
Lord Jesus. The word “power” dunamis is used
commonly in the New Testament to denote some
miraculous and extraordinary power; and here
evidently means that the Lord Jesus would
put forth such a power in the infliction of
pain and for the preservation of the purity
of his church.
~Barnes Notes
|
2 Corinthians 10:6
And having in a readiness to revenge all
disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
Let us explain this verse with the commentary:
And having in a
readiness to revenge all disobedience
- Not with the temporal sword, as the civil
magistrate, but with the spiritual one;
meaning either censures and excommunication,
which a faithful minister of the Gospel,
with the suffrage of the church, has at
hand, and a power to make use of, for the
reclaiming of disobedient persons; or rather
that extraordinary power which was peculiar
to the apostles, of inflicting punishments
on delinquents, such as what was exercised
by Peter upon Ananias and Sapphira, by the
Apostle Paul on Elymas the sorcerer, the
incestuous person, and Hymenaeus and
Philetus, and which still continued with
him; it was ready at hand, he could exercise
it whenever he pleased, he only waited a
proper time:
when your obedience is
fulfilled - till they were thoroughly
reformed from the several abuses, both in
doctrine and practice, they had fallen into,
and were brought into a better order and
decorum, and appeared to have been in all
things obedient to the directions he had
given; being unwilling, as yet, to use the
awful authority he had from Christ, lest any
of the dear children of God, who were
capable of being restored by gentler
methods, should suffer with the refractory
and incorrigible.
~John Gill |
2 Corinthians 13:10
Therefore I write these things being absent, lest
being present I should use sharpness, according to
the power which the Lord hath given me to
edification, and not to destruction.
That they many learn.
1 Corinthians 11:32
But when we are judged, we are chastened of the
Lord, that we should not be condemned with the
world.
2 Thessalonians 3:15
Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a
brother.
Revelation 3:19
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous
therefore, and repent.
Not to blaspheme.
Acts 13:44-45
44. And the next sabbath day came almost the whole
city together to hear the word of God.
45. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were
filled with envy, and spake against those things
which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and
blaspheming.
2 Timothy 3:1-5
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous
times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves,
covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient
to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false
accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those
that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures
more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power
thereof: from such turn away.
Note: In
thinking about this I see this manifested in at
least two ways.
1] by those attending early on who were never
converted or what we refer to as falsely converted.
2] by those fallen away and generally still
attending somewhere in the Body of Christ. We
may see more bitterness and persecution from these
than the others.
Revelation 13:1
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a
beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and
ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon
his heads the name of blasphemy.
Revelation 13:5-6
5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking
great things and blasphemies; and power was given
unto him to continue forty and two months.
6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God,
to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them
that dwell in heaven. |