When was pauls last updated

But then he went further. He made it his own, believed it, absorbed it, lived by it…. There are two Greek words used in this verse that are vitally important for last-day saints. They are patience makrothumia , which can even mean patience with people.

And then there is endurance hupomone. It describes not the spirit which accepts life but the spirit which takes control of it.

I like to spell it loooooong suffering. Also they treat endurance as steadfast endurance or perseverance. Not only was Paul persecuted in the Galatian area where Timothy lived but he was persecuted all over because of the gospel. Many scriptures tell of his persecutions e.

Persecutions and persecutors will become worse and worse as time goes on. We simply cannot escape the fact that persecution is the lot of sincere Christians. We are certainly not to seek persecution, but if we are not having it, we should probably check ourselves to see if we are really living in the faith 2 Cor. Again, there are many scriptures that speak of persecution being normal for Christians e.

I want ecstasy, not transformation. I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the eternal in a paper sack. Obviously, Paul is here conveying once more the age-old truth that the church will always be made up of wheat and tares Matt.

The two will only be separated at the end of the age. Unfortunately, sin exerts upon us almost a gravitational pull, always taking us lower. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

The scripture is plain that we must continue to the end to be saved Matt. This continuing or enduring is not something we can do by ourselves, but something God does in us and with us. Someone has said that it is not we who persevere but God who perseveres in us. We need to hold on to what we have learned in this faith.

We must not be like those false teachers who were ever learning but never coming to a full knowledge of the truth. Paul challenges Timothy to continue in the truth he had learned and to remember where that truth came from. It was to be guarded as a precious treasure. Regarding this treasure, Paul reminds Timothy of his childhood and how he had learned the Holy Scriptures from his young and tender years.

Some Christian couples have even read scriptures while the child was yet in the womb, trusting in some way that the word of God would make a penetration into the little heart of the unborn. We have discussed how the word of God is one of the means in which we become sanctified in our walk. It is the word of God that changes people.

It is also the word of God that changes nations and civilizations. There is a true story relating to the famous Mutiny on the Bounty:. A group of British sailors on the ship H. Bounty mutinied in the early part of the nineteenth century, seized the ship and fled to the island of Pitcairn in the South Pacific.

There they hid from British justice for many years. But they were such a community of cut-throats that their life there was desperate and dangerous. They were so debauched and degraded that they started killing each other off, until it looked as though their colony would only last a few years before it would be destroyed by their own debauchery.

Then one of the mutineers, Alexander Smith, found a Bible which his mother had placed in his trunk. He began to read it, and soon his own life was changed as he came to know the Lord through the Book.

He taught it to the others and rather quickly life on the island took on a wholly different cast. When the mutineers were discovered, they were found to have an almost ideal community. There was no jail because there was no crime. They were godly people, every family among them transformed by the power of the Word of God. Guthrie points out that the expression Holy Scriptures Gk.

Several scholars state this as a certainty. However, by the late time this epistle was written, some books of what was to become the New Testament were already in existence.

Certainly, many sayings of Jesus were circulating in the churches. It is interesting that Paul could connect a quotation of Deuteronomy with a saying of Jesus that is now found in Luke All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 2 Timothy Here we have a great proof-text for the importance of the Bible in the Christian life.

The Bible is the spiritual breath of God and all scripture is inspired by the Lord. The physicist, Gerald Schroeder gives us an example of this inspiration:. From the time of Aristotle, 2, years ago, scientific theory held the universe to be eternal…Through the early s in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary, two thirds of leading U.

For 3, years, since the revelation on Sinai, the Bible denied it, steadfastly claiming there was a beginning to our universe. Only in the past thirty years has science resolved the question. Schroeder is not only a famous physicist but is a competent Bible scholar. The Bible itself is an amazing miracle.

Much of the success of the early church was because of its unfailing dependence upon the Bible as the word of God. In fact, they quoted it a total of 36, times. It is actually possible to reconstruct the New Testament with all but eleven verses from their many quotes. Vincente Quiroga of Chile found a few pages of a book washed up on the seashore by a tidal wave following an earthquake. He read them and never rested until he obtained the rest of the Bible.

Not only did he become a Christian; he devoted the rest of this life to the distribution of the Scriptures in the forgotten villages of northern Chile. The Bible can be trusted in all things. The disciple of the Lord and the word of the Lord should not be long separated.

The modern disciple, Smith Wigglesworth, felt that he could not go more than fifteen minutes without stopping to read the Bible. It is said that when he was invited out to dine he would insist on reading the Bible before each course in the meal. On one occasion he was being driven to a meeting when he cried for the car to stop. The driver thought something was wrong and brought the vehicle to a swift stop. It is tragic that in our generation we no longer have this great respect for the word of God.

Above all else let me have the Book of God. It can mean thoroughly furnished or fitted out. We can much better understand the ideas of furnished, fitted out, thoroughly equipped and complete, rather than dealing with the idea of any perfection on this earth. In 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: 2 Timothy Once more Paul charges Timothy, and this charge seems to be the most serious one of all.

He actually charges Timothy by God and Christ, the Judge of all the whole earth and by the coming or appearing of the Lord. There seems to be more here than meets the eye with all the serious charges Paul is giving his young helper cf.

The remarkable Apostle Paul, who for some thirty years has conducted a vast and important ministry to the Gentiles, is about to pass from the scene.

In the pagan Greek culture it was the term used to call both gods and men to witness. Timothy, who was half-Jewish appears to be the last link in this divine chain of distribution. We note that Timothy is charged by the appearing of Jesus Gk.

In the ancient world this term was used for the intervention of the gods. It was especially used for the accession of the Roman emperor to his throne. To me that is the highest calling any man could have on earth. It also has the idea of being alert and urgent. This gets us into the unpleasant area of church discipline. This is a sad situation and does not do much for the moral condition of the churches and communities as well.

Of course, when we correct and rebuke we should also be ready to encourage parakaleo. This Greek word conveys the idea of exhorting, begging and urging people to turn away from their wrong. Perhaps these little lines sum it all up:. Lord, help us in love To rebuke and exhort Always remembering That the time is short. So Christian preachers must preach the word wherever they go. They are to be persistent and urge their word on all hearers.

But they must sometimes get tough with people, even rebuking them when necessary. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. The apostle tells us that the time will come when people will not endure sound or healthy Bible teaching. We have surely come to a time today when people, including many Christians, have forsaken healthy doctrine.

Some of our popular church doctrines are now based on greed the sanctified kind of course. Unfortunately, the Bible speaks in disparaging tones concerning such endeavors. There are a lot of other unhealthy things we do. Sometimes we are deceitful. Deceitfulness is a very sophisticated form of lying. By using deceit we can let other people believe a lie without actually telling them one. We seem at first to get away with this tricky business.

Perhaps it raises our blood pressure and gives us ulcers and other ailments. Then, there is the whole business of adultery, fornication and other sexual sins.

Our society is crazed with the subject of sex. The Bible says that adultery and fornication will ruin our health and even kill us. Illicit sex can kill. Modern developments have clearly illustrated the unhealthiness of illicit sex. We are told that AIDS reduces the average life expectancy by 50 percent, and that active homosexuals who are twenty years old are finding it difficult to live to age forty.

The Bible assures us that illicit sex is unhealthy and we now have millions of statistics to prove it. The way of sin and rebellion is and has always been an unhealthy and hazardous business. The result is that they are led into myths. These people heap-up false teachers around them. We may wonder why there are so many false teachers to every true one. Also, we may wonder why so many false doctrines spread quickly and why false doctrine is always so popular and in such demand.

We are now living in a day when this scripture has come to pass. Our postmodern philosophers have assured us that there is no universal standard of truth. They say that all truth is relative and ever-changing. Unfortunately, their idea of truth does not correspond with every-day reality. The horrible cost of all these new ideas is showing up everywhere in our society. Unfortunately, many in the church are clinging to these new ideas.

The Greek word used here is muthos or fable. It refers to fiction rather than to fact. This is such an important subject that we need to say more about it. Let us look at a few more modern myths. The pagan myth of reincarnation has seeped into the church. Please be advised that it is impossible to believe in the resurrection and reincarnation together. One more myth is that science can solve all our problems. Another one is that the homosexual lifestyle is good and commendable.

The Bible condemns it in no uncertain terms Rom. Yet one last myth in our modern and postmodern world is that psychology can help us become happy and well-adjusted persons. We have now even joined together pagan and depraved Freudian psychology with pastoral ministry.

Today we put the emphasis upon what we think, not on what the word of God says. It no longer means that a statement matches what really exists in the world but only that it matches my inner experience.

There are some things that are true eternally, regardless of what the postmodern philosophers tell us. I like the story that Lloyd C. Douglas, author of The Robe relates to us. It is the story of an old retired music teacher living in a boarding house. It was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow; it will be middle C a thousand years from now.

The tenor upstairs sings flat, the piano across the hall is out of tune, but, my friend, that is middle C! But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. Paul advises Timothy and all of us as well to keep our heads, and this is not so easy a task in this age of mythology and make-believe.

The actual Greek word here is nepoho. Literally, it means to be sober but figuratively it pictures freedom from every kind of mental and spiritual drunkenness. It also has the meaning of being well-balanced and self-controlled. Timothy is never to get the idea that the ministry is easy. He is to continually do the work of an evangelist. This is the Greek term euangelion and it has the meaning of being an evangelist or sharing the gospel. Timothy is also to discharge all his duties.

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Paul knew his departure was near and he was ready. The pictures here are very graphic and the apostle says he is about to be poured out like a drink offering No doubt, Paul is referring to the drink offering that was often presented by the Israelites cf. However, the Romans also made a drink offering at the end of every meal as they poured out a cup of wine to the gods.

This section continues to be very descriptive. The apostle speaks of his departure. In nautical language it meant hoisting up the anchor and sailing away. Paul once more returns to the idiom of the battle or of the race. The word can be used either for a fight or for an athletic contest. The Battle of Marathon was one of the decisive battles of the world. In it, the Greeks met the Persians; and, if the Persians had conquered, the glory that was Greece would never have flowered upon the world.

Against fearful odds, the Greeks won the victory; and, after the battle, a Greek soldier ran all the way, day and night, to Athens with the news. He ran straight to the magistrates. He had completed his course and done his work, and there is no finer way for an individual to die. Paul was about to finish his race in victory. He had delivered the true faith to the Gentile world.

Now he was about to be offered up. Long before, Paul had witnessed the victory of a man by this same name Acts Stephen Stephanos had died while Paul was a witness to his martyrdom. The great apostle had suffered much for Christ. Now he was about to depart and be with the Lord. We note that the crown is not just reserved for Paul. It is available for all those who have won the Christian race and who have kept the faith. Unlike the laurel given to the runners in ancient times, this will be an imperishable crown of righteousness 1 Cor.

Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. Here the apostle is longing to see his son in the faith, Timothy, for one last time. He requests that Timothy come to him shortly. We see in verse 21 that he means before the winter season sets in.

Because of the frequent winter storms, most shipping and sea travel would stop with the onset of cold weather. Since he was intent on handing his important ministry over to Timothy, there were no doubt many things he wished to share with him cf. Paul is obviously feeling lonely and forsaken by friends. Only Luke is with him v. Demas has actually turned his back on Paul and has deserted the mission entirely. Crescens and Titus have gone off on missions of their own.

We will soon see how some prominent Christian friends have also deserted Paul. No doubt the desertion of Demas was weighing heavily on him. Demas had been a faithful worker with the apostle for some time as we see in Colossians and Philemon Demas had left Paul because he loved the present world or the present evil age Gk. Trench defines it as:. That floating mass of thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims, aspirations at any time current in the world, which it may be impossible to seize and accurately define, but which constitutes a most real and effective power, being the moral and immoral atmosphere which at every moment of our lives we inhale, again inevitable to exhale, the subtle informing spirit of the world of men who are living alienated and apart from God.

From a very practical viewpoint, it is entirely possible that Demas had become alarmed about his situation as he saw persecution closing in on himself and Paul and as he realized the ultimate cost of their enterprise. Perhaps he was just tired and worn out. He had in fact been in prison once before with Paul as we see in the Colossian and Philemon passages noted above. In regard to the other workers mentioned here, we have no other New Testament reference to Crescens.

Guthrie speaks of a tradition connecting him with the areas of Vienne and Mayence in Gaul. He was with Paul in Jerusalem when the touchy subject of circumcision for Gentiles came up. Throughout this concluding section the apostle seems to be making arrangements before his approaching final departure. He urges Timothy to make haste because he was apparently not too optimistic that there would be time enough to fulfill the request.

Much preparation for the voyage must be made. Obviously, months could quickly elapse before his arrival. He was a physician who no doubt gave up a profitable vocation to spread the gospel message. We might wonder how Luke could actually be in prison with Paul. It is amazing that Paul here requests Timothy to bring Mark with him. However, he somehow grew discouraged and returned home to Jerusalem Acts Because of this sharp disagreement, Paul and Barnabas never again worked together.

We do see here a great picture of reconciliation. We know by Colossians that Mark had made up with Paul and was working with him. Now, we see that Paul greatly desires his company. Surely it is interesting that Paul was to have with him in prison the future writers of the gospels of Mark and Luke as well as the Book of Acts.

We know that Mark had also become a close companion of Peter and that he wrote his gospel from the recollections and sermons of Peter. Tit From other places such as Colossians , we know that Tychicus was a very useful person to have around.

There has been a lot of speculation among scholars and commentators concerning this passage and why Paul left these valuable items at Troas. Commentators Meyer and Moule feel that Paul was re-arrested at Troas and was therefore unable to gather his personal items. Let us take a look at the items Paul is requesting here. It was made of heavy material in a circular shape with a hole cut for the head. It could be used for a coat or even a sleeping bag in the winter. Of course, much interest among commentators has been raised concerning the scrolls and parchments mentioned here.

He asks for his scrolls Gk. The scrolls were no doubt made of papyrus, while the parchments were surely made of animal skins. Barclay notes that history has a strange way of repeating itself.

Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message. Although Alexander is fairly well identified here, we are still not exactly sure who he is. The name was a common one in that time. There are two other possible references to this Alexander and they are found in Acts and 1Timothy In the Acts account we see that he was a Jew who was put forth as a spokesman in the Ephesus riot.

In 1 Timothy we realize that he was a believer, but one whom Paul had to discipline severely. It is possible that the Bible is speaking of the same person in these accounts. Pett wonders why this Alexander is mentioned here with the other greetings and with mention of the other co-workers. Others think he might have been a witness against Paul at the first hearing.

At the time when he wrote Romans, Paul had never visited Rome, although Chapter 16 of Romans does indicate that he had acquaintances there. Writing to a community largely composed of strangers, then, Paul may have felt compelled to use the restrained and magisterial declarations of Roman style, rather than the impassioned pleas and parental sternness that permeate his letters to the churches at Corinth. Because he is not personally familiar with the Roman church, Paul begins his letter by introducing himself.

Paul follows his introduction with a flattering greeting to the Roman church, and expresses his desire to preach in Rome someday. Paul begins with a discussion of the state of humanity before the possibility of salvation through faith in Jesus. He tells how Gentiles worshipped idols, disdaining devotion to God, and how Jews failed to follow the law properly, acting hypocritically by proclaiming allegiance to Jewish law while surreptitiously sinning. Paul teaches that salvation from sin is only possible through faith.

Christians, then, must be governed by holiness, not by sin: holiness alone will lead to eternal life. Jewish law ceases to be binding: the law arouses sinful passions, and as beings dead to sin, Christians become dead to the law.

In contrast to these heretics, Timothy was to patiently do the work of an evangelist. In the remaining verses of this book, Paul gives a personal update to Timothy.

Having referred to his present state at 2 Tim. In 2 Tim. Acts and was now a valuable Christian co-worker cf. While Paul may be speaking spiritually cf. Acts In conclusion, in 2 Tim. Chris Paul did have a positive test. Why Lakers should and shouldn't be concerned about LeBron James' return from latest injury. Los Angeles Lakers 53m ago. How long is Klay Thompson out?

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