Continuing in the Word
It is a regular theme of the New Testament authors that the people of God must be steadfast. On the one hand, we must resist the intellectual and moral pressures of our contemporary world, and refuse to conform to the trends and fashions of the day. We are not to let ourselves slip, slither and slide in the mud of relativity. We cannot let ourselves be torn from our moorings and be carried away by the flood. On the other hand, we are positively called to persevere in the truth we have received, to cling to it as a secure handhold in the storm, and to stand firm on this foundation.
Here are some examples of this kind of exhortation, by three of the major contributors to the New Testament.
Paul: ‘So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you.’
Hebrews: ‘We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.’
John: ‘See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you.’ ‘Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.’
Common to these quotations is the recognition that certain truths had been ‘taught’ or ‘passed on’ by the apostles, and had consequently been ‘heard’ or ‘received’ by the church. This body of doctrine was now a sacred deposit to be guarded. It had a normative quality. The church must remain in it and hold to it, neither going back from it, nor going on beyond it in such a way as to contradict it.
Part of Paul’s final charge to Timothy elaborates this theme. In order to grasp its implications, we need to have 2 Timothy 3:1 – 4:8 before us.
3 1But mark this: there will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
6They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.
10You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11persecutions, sufferings – what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
4 1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction. 3For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather round them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
6For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. 7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
Standing in the Word
Paul’s exhortation to Timothy was given against the background of the kind of society he was living in (3:1–13). It was a context that was hostile to the gospel. Nor could the gospel be reshaped in order to accommodate to society’s ideas and standards. On the contrary, Paul was aware of a radical incompatibility between the Word and the world. ‘Mark this,’ he wrote: ‘There will be terrible times in the last days.’
It is important to realize that by ‘the last days’ the apostle was not alluding to some future era immediately preceding the return of Christ. For in verse 5 he tells Timothy to ‘have nothing to do’ with the people he has been describing. How could Timothy avoid them if they had not yet been born? No, ‘the last days’ from the perspective of the New Testament began with Jesus Christ. He ushered them in. The last days are therefore these days, the days in which Timothy lived and in which we also live. They are the whole period between the first and second comings of Christ.
What are the characteristics of the last days? Three seem to stand out from Paul’s description.
The first is misdirected love. Of the nineteen distinguishing marks which the apostle lists (verses 2–4), it is striking that six have to do with love. ‘People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money . . . without love . . . not lovers of the good . . . lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.’ The expression ‘without love’ must be understood as meaning ‘without true love’. For the people in view are not devoid of love altogether; they love themselves, they love money and they love pleasure. But these are examples of misdirected love. Self, money and pleasure are inappropriate objects of human love. They even become idolatrous when they displace God from his rightful place as the One to be loved with all our being. Yet we see misdirected love everywhere today. Self-absorption, covetousness and hedonism are rife, while the first and second commandments, to love God and our neighbour, are neglected. Moreover, when people’s love is directed to the wrong objects, all their relationships go wrong. They become ‘boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient . . . ungrateful . . . unforgiving, slanderous’ (verses 2–3).
The second characteristic of our age is empty religion. Our contemporaries are described as ‘having a form of godliness but denying its power’ (verse 5). It may seem extraordinary that people characterized by self-love could also be religious. But this is what Paul says. Indeed, it is possible for religion, which is intended to express the worship of God, to become perverted into a means of ego-inflation. The proper name for this sick distortion is hypocrisy, and Jesus vehemently attacked it. Such religion is ‘form’ without ‘power’, outward show without inward reality. It is also an enemy of the gospel, because nominal Christianity hardens people against real Christianity.
Third, the last days are distinguished by the cult of an open mind. Paul writes here of people who are ‘always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth’ (verse 7). They sit on the fence and refuse to come down on either side of it. Tolerance is their watchword. Determined to avoid the pain of reaching definite conclusions, they make a fetish of keeping their mind open. They cannot endure what C. S. Lewis called ‘the tyrannous noon of revelation’; they prefer the twilight of free thought. They have overlooked the distinction which Allan Bloom pointed out between two kinds of ‘openness’ – ‘the openness of indifference . . . and the openness that invites us to the quest for knowledge and certitude’. The latter is an aspect of the Christian virtue of humility, acknowledging that our understanding is provisional and incomplete, and always seeking to increase it. The former, on the other hand, is not only insulting to truth, but personally perilous. It exposes us to the danger, as one bishop has put it, of having our minds so open that our brains fall out!
Here, then, are three characteristics of our time, which Scripture resolutely criticizes and tells us to avoid.
Thus, Paul calls Timothy to be different from the world around him. After his portrayal of these ungodly trends, Paul twice writes su de, which is translated ‘You, however’, and then ‘But as for you’ in verses 10 and 14. These words introduce the apostle’s two exhortations to Timothy to resist the mood of the world. The first exhortation focuses on what Timothy has already come to know about Paul: his ‘teaching’, his ‘way of life’, his ‘purpose’, together with his ‘faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings’ (verses 10–13). Timothy had seen Paul’s ministry with his own eyes, including the opposition and persecution which he had had to endure in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra (verse 11). For the fact is that ‘everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted’ (verse 12), since ‘evildoers and impostors’, who reject the gospel, ‘will go from bad to worse’ (verse 13).
Thus, the apostle contrasts the low standards of the world with his own teaching and conduct. The two were in irreconcilable antagonism to one another. Hence the persecution Paul had had to bear. If Timothy were to stand firm, taking Paul’s side against the world’s, he would undoubtedly have to suffer too.
Continuing in the Word
Paul’s mention of the ‘evildoers and impostors’, deceiving and being deceived, who would ‘go from bad to worse’ (verse 13), leads him to his second su de, ‘But as for you’. This time, rather than just looking back to his past teaching, conduct and sufferings which Timothy had come to know, he also looks to the future: ‘But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it’ (verse 14). These teachers from whom Timothy had learned are probably first his mother and grandmother who had taught him the Old Testament from his infancy (verse 15; cf. 1:5), and second the apostle, whose ‘teaching’ (verse 10) Timothy knew and which for us is preserved in the New Testament. Thus, Paul contrasts two sets of teachers – on the one hand, the impostors and deceivers of verse 13, and on the other, Timothy’s mother and mentor (the apostle himself) who had taught him the Scriptures.
Today we too need to pay attention to the same summons. We are not to be like reeds blown by the wind. We are not to bow down before the prevailing trends of society, with its covetousness and materialism, its relativism, and its rejection of all absolute standards of truth and goodness. Instead, we are to continue faithfully in the Old and New Testament Scriptures.
But why? What is Scripture that it should occupy such an important place in our lives? The apostle goes on to stress three fundamental aspects of it.
First, Scripture is able to instruct us for salvation (verse 15, rsv). Its primary purpose is practical. It is more a guidebook than a textbook, more a book of salvation than a book of science. This is not to say that the biblical and scientific accounts of the world are in conflict, but rather that they are complementary. God’s purpose in Scripture is not to reveal facts that can be discovered by the scientific method of observation and experiment, but rather to reveal truths which are beyond the scope of science, in particular God’s way of salvation through Christ.
This is why Jesus Christ is himself the centre of the biblical revelation, since it bears witness to him. As J.-J. von Allmen has expressed it, ‘the heart of the Scripture (what sums it up and makes it live) or the head of the Scripture (. . . what explains it and justifies it) . . . is Jesus Christ. To read the Bible without meeting him is to read it badly, and to preach the Bible without proclaiming him is to preach it falsely.’ It is because Scripture instructs us for salvation that it instructs us about Christ, by faith in whom we receive salvation. Moreover, the reason we love the Bible is that it speaks to us of Christ. It is God’s picture, God’s portrait, of Christ.
Second, Scripture is God-breathed. The better-known av phrase consists of five words, ‘given by inspiration of God’. But the niv is correct to use the one word ‘God-breathed’ as the precise equivalent of the Greek expression theopneustos. This tells us that Scripture is the Word of God, spoken by God, or breathed out of the mouth of God. The implied combination of mouth, breath and word shows that the model of inspiration which is intended is that of human speech. For speech is communication between minds. Often we keep what is ‘on our mind’ to ourselves. But when we speak, we clothe the thoughts of our minds in the words of our mouth.
We observe also that the text reads, ‘All Scripture is God-breathed’ (verse 16). The neb, on the other hand, translates the clause ‘every inspired Scripture is useful’. This is almost certainly incorrect. It implies that if every inspired Scripture is useful, there must be other Scriptures which are not inspired and therefore not useful. But, in the first place, the concept of ‘uninspired Scripture’ is a contradiction in terms since the word ‘Scripture’ simply means inspired writing. Second, the neb omits, without sufficient warrant, the little word kai, meaning ‘and’ or ‘also’. It shows that Paul is not making one statement (‘every inspired Scripture is useful’), but two (‘every Scripture is inspired and useful’). Indeed, it is useful to us precisely because it is inspired by God.
Nevertheless, we must not mis-state the truth of inspiration. When God spoke, he did not speak into space. Nor did he write documents and leave them around to be discovered, as Joseph Smith (founder of the Mormon Church) claimed regarding his golden plates. Nor did God dictate Scripture to non-participating secretaries, as Muslims believe Allah dictated the Qur’an to Muhammad in Arabic. No, by the process of inspiration we mean that the human authors, even while God was speaking to and through them, were themselves actively engaged in historical research, theological reflection and literary composition. For much of Scripture is historical narrative, and each author has his own particular theological emphasis and literary style. Divine inspiration did not dispense with human co-operation, or iron out the peculiar contributions of the authors.
So ‘God-breathed’ is not the only account which Scripture gives of itself, since God’s mouth was not the only mouth involved in its production. The same Scripture which says ‘the mouth of the Lord has spoken’ also says that God spoke ‘by the mouth of his holy prophets’. Out of whose mouth did Scripture come then? God’s or the prophet’s? The only biblical answer is ‘both’. Indeed, God spoke through the human authors in such a way that his words were simultaneously their words, and their words were simultaneously his. This is the double authorship of the Bible. Scripture is equally the Word of God and the words of human beings. Even better, it is the Word of God through the words of human beings.
It is essential to keep the two authorships together. Some theologians, ancient and modern, Catholic and Protestant, have appealed to the two natures of Christ as an analogy. Although the parallel is not exact, it is illuminating. In the person of Christ (who is both God and human) we must neither affirm his deity in such a way as to deny his humanity, nor affirm his humanity in such a way as to deny his deity, but rather affirm both equally, refusing to allow either to contradict the other. In the same way, in our doctrine of Scripture we must neither affirm that it is the Word of God in such a way as to deny that it is the words of human beings (which is fundamentalism), nor affirm that it is the words of human beings in such a way as to deny that it is the Word of God (which is liberalism), but rather affirm both equally, refusing to allow either to contradict the other. Thus, on the one hand, God spoke, determining what he wanted to say, yet without smothering the personality of the human authors. On the other hand, human beings spoke, using their faculties freely, yet without distorting the truth that God was speaking through them.
We have no right to declare that such a combination is impossible. To say so, wrote Dr J. I. Packer, would indicate
a false doctrine of God, here particularly of his providence . . . For it assumes that God and man stand in such a relationship to each other that they cannot both be free agents in the same action. If man acts freely (i.e. voluntarily and spontaneously), God does not, and vice versa. The two freedoms are mutually exclusive. But the affinities of this idea are with Deism, not Christian theism . . . The cure for such fallacious reasoning is to grasp the biblical idea of God’s concursive operation in, with and through the free working of man’s own mind.
The way we understand Scripture will affect the way we read it. In particular, its double authorship demands a double approach. Because Scripture is the Word of God, we should read it as we read no other book – on our knees, humbly, reverently, prayerfully, looking to the Holy Spirit for illumination. But because Scripture is also the words of human beings, we should read it as we read every other book, using our minds, thinking, pondering and reflecting, and paying close attention to its literary, historical, cultural and linguistic characteristics. This combination of humble reverence and critical reflection is not only not impossible; it is indispensable.
Third, Scripture is useful (verses 16–17). It is able to do more than instruct us for salvation (verse 15); it is also ‘useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness’ (verse 16). In other words, it is profitable both for doctrine (teaching truth and correcting error) and for ethics (rebuking sin and training in right living). It leads us on in Christian belief and behaviour until we become men and women of God, ‘thoroughly equipped for every good work’ (verse 17). In these ways the Bible has an essential part to play in our growth into maturity in Christ, as we will consider more fully in the next chapter. In contrast to the errors of the ‘evildoers and impostors’, Timothy was to continue in the Word of God, both the Old Testament Scriptures and the apostle’s teaching.
Thank God for the Bible! God has not left us to grope our way in the darkness; he has given us a light to show us the path. He has not abandoned us to flounder in heavy seas; Scripture is a rock on which we may stand. Our resolve should be to study it, believe it and obey it.
Preaching the Word
Neither Timothy nor anybody else has the right to monopolize Scripture. For Scripture is nobody’s private possession; it is public property. Having been given by God, it belongs to all. His Word has been spoken in order to be passed on. So the apostle, conscious of God’s presence and of Christ’s future appearing for judgment (4:1), gives Timothy this charge: ‘Preach the Word’ (verse 2). He must proclaim it like a herald or town crier in the market-place. He must do so boldly, urgently and relevantly, correcting, rebuking and encouraging according to people’s state and need, and ‘with great patience and careful instruction’ (verse 2).
This was all the more necessary, Paul added, because the time was coming when people will ‘not put up with sound doctrine’. Instead, suffering from a strange pathological condition called ‘itching ears’, they will listen to teachers who say what they want to hear, rather than to the truth which God wants to say to them (verses 3–4). Yet the unwillingness of some to listen to the Word of God is no reason why we should give up preaching it! On the contrary, Timothy was to persevere, to keep his head, to endure opposition, and to fulfil his ministry faithfully, both as an evangelist and as a teacher (verse 5).
One of the greatest needs of the contemporary church is conscientious biblical exposition from the pulpit (see chapter 4). Ignorance of even the rudiments of the faith is widespread. Many Christians are immature and unstable. And the major reason for this sorry state of affairs is the scarcity of responsible, thorough, balanced biblical preachers. The pulpit is not the place to air our own opinions, but to unfold God’s Word.
The climax of the apostle’s exhortation is reached in verses 6–8. In a previous letter, written about two years earlier, he had described himself as ‘an old man’. Now he writes that the time of his departure has come. Indeed, the pouring out of his life like a drink offering has already begun (verse 6). Looking back over his apostolic career, he is able to say that he has fought the good fight, finished the race and kept the faith (verse 7). He has no regrets. He is probably incarcerated in the underground Mamertine Prison in Rome, from which he is not expecting to be released. Already with his mind’s eye he sees the flash of the executioner’s sword, and beyond it ‘the crown of righteousness’ which on the last day Jesus, the righteous Judge, will give both to him and to ‘all who have longed for his appearing’ (verse 8). It is this sense that his ministry is nearing its end which prompts him to exhort Timothy to stand firm in the Word, continue in it and pass it on.
I hope it will not be thought too personal if I say that I understand and feel the poignancy of Paul’s words, although I do not of course presume to compare myself with him. But as I write these words, I have recently celebrated my seventieth birthday, my statutory ‘three score years and ten’. So, naturally, I ask myself, where are the Timothys of the next generation? Where are the young evangelicals, who are determined by God’s grace to stand firm in Scripture, refusing to be swept off their feet by the prevailing winds of fashion, who are resolved to continue in it and live by it, relating the Word to the world in order to obey it, and who are committed to passing it on as they give themselves to the ministry of conscientious exposition?