Chapter 1
MSB Notes on 2 Timothy:
A personal letter from Paul to Timothy, the second such. Titled as all his personal letters with the name of the recipient. This is the last letter Paul wrote to anyone, shortly before his martyrdom in about 67 AD.
Paul got released from his first imprisonment (though I don't think we have any information about why, nor any specifics about what he did afterward.) He is apparently arrested again, as part of Nero's persecution of all Christians. We only know of this because of this little book. The first time Paul was imprisoned, he was confident he would be released. That is not the case as he writes 2 Timothy. At his first imprisonment, Paul was only under house arrest, and was able to teach and preach freely. This time he is in chains in a cold cell. Persecution is so intense at this time that most - if not all - of his friends have abandoned him. They aren't trying to see him in the prison so would not be bringing him a decent meal now and then either. He is truly abandoned by all but God. He urges Timothy to come and see him one last time. We don't know if Timothy made it...or indeed even attempted to make it.
In this last letter, knowing he wasn't going to be there to assist Timothy further, he sends him a last collection of exhortations, perhaps calling attention to the things Paul had found most important, most foundational, most needed for advancement of the cause of Christ.
There is some indication that Timothy was weakening in the faith. Perhaps the load was too heavy. I would bet those he served were increasingly ungrateful and unfaithful as Nero's persecution grew in intensity and consequences. Perhaps Timothy himself feared for his life. We know from the end of Hebrews that Timothy was imprisoned at least once and later released. Perhaps this was such an awful time for Timothy that his vigor as Paul's only real successor in teaching had been diminished. MSB says Paul has some praise for Timothy in this letter, but many more admonitions, as if Paul was more worried than proud at this time.
MSB says no major "Interpretive Challenges" in this book, just a number of names that we have little or no information about. Jannes and Jambres are among them.
An introduction - more of a salutation - opens the book. I note that Paul very often mentions both Father and Son in his openings, but can't remember him ever referring to the Holy Spirit. Why would this be? Perhaps because the Holy Spirit doesn't need to "send" greetings, since it resides in us already?
2021-2, Paul is in a cell, somewhere in Rome, at least that's how I read the MSB intro to the letter. How then did he get writing materials and how was he able to "mail" the letter? Did he befriend one or more of the guards? Is this letter all in his own hand, which was apparently large and clunky, perhaps owing to severe nearsightedness? We hear that Paul was in a sort of dungeon like hole in the ground with only an opening at the top, and that food and maybe a little water was dribbled down. So sewage removal, probably no bedding, no blankets. Cold wet, and putrid. How could he have written and posted ANY kind of letter from such a place? No. We have to assume he was at least in a better place than that. Perhaps he was in such a place for a time, and that's why his friends abandoned him - because they couldn't reach him anyway? Or maybe he was in that place AFTER this letter was written. Maybe his sentence - his torture - was to remove him from the kind of cell from which he wrote this last letter, sent by means of the last person who would ever be allowed to visit him, and drop him down into that awful hole in the ground. Did he die in that hole, that last place, starved, cold, sick and abandoned? I looked online and there is no real tradition about how Paul died. There is no information. At that time, beheading was a common enough execution in Rome, but we aren't told anywhere that he died that way. After all the ignominious ways those he once persecuted died at his hands, perhaps it is fitting that his death passed with no regard at all. Not even a big public beheading. He might well have died down in that dungeon, and his body just wasted away down there, eaten by rats...or his fellow prisoners. What a horror.
This is an interesting verse:
3 I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. [2Ti 1:3 ESV]
"as did my ancestors". Paul sees no distinction between the God he serves as a Christian and the God served by the Jews historically. This reinforces the idea that Christianity is a progression - a continuation - of God's original plan for mankind from the beginning of time. Islam sees itself as a continuation - I think - of pre-Law worship by Abraham, Adam, and so on, though they do consider Moses a prophet. Why don't they follow Mosaic Law? What is their reason for dropping that? Islam considers Christianity a fake religion. While the scriptures to the Jews were honored, Christians are considered polytheistic.
2021-2, 3 I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. [2Ti 1:3 ESV]. Look at that phrase "with a clear conscience". Paul doesn't say this, doesn't put it in writing, because he has kept score of all the bad things he did and all the good things, and he's worked it out that he's on the top side of things. He doesn't think he's preached to enough people to offset the ones he persecuted when he was young. He doesn't mean that because he knows what the gospel, as we now have in the New Testament, clearly teaches that it is about grace, not about anything we've done - good or bad. I think his conscience was clear because he believed in his heart, all the way down in the secret locked vaults of his own conscience, in the place where the sins only he even knew about were hidden, that God had forgiven everything because Jesus had paid for everything. Many of us say we believe this, but we still carry around guilt about things that we don't really think can be - or should be - forgiven. When we do this, we are mistaking regret for guilt, and we handicap ourselves because after all, how can we guide someone else to Christ when we are still so guilty ourselves? Want to know how we can take a load off our shoulders this Christmas? We can let go of the guilt about sins we no longer have anyway! Then we can hold our head up while we tell others what Christ has done for us!
Possible FB post for 12/23/21.
These verses:
6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. [2Ti 1:6-7 ESV]
The phrase "fan into flame" implies that the flame is lower than it once was. An indication that Timothy was having problems. I have always liked vs 7. We shouldn't live in fear, but realize our own power. Is that right? Or is this about the Holy Spirit that gives us power? MSB has a note but I don't find it very helpful in this regard.
2021 - Laying on of hands. This went beyond the gifts of the Spirit that we all receive when we are saved, to something more - something that equipped the recipient of this touch for a specific purpose. It reminds me of Elisha's request to receive a double portion of Elijah's spirit. It reminds me of Moses appointing others to help with judging Israel. Was there a laying on of Moses' hands? I don't remember precisely. There was no hand laying between Elijah and Elisha. I do remember that Moses was somewhat diminished as a result of the event, so some kind of something went out of him and into the new judges. (No. It did not diminish...see notes there.) Is that what is supposed to happen when we ordain elders/deacons, and when a new minister is ordained? They receive some portion of power from those who lay their hands on? That would mean, that when a person is ordained, those willing to lay their hands on them are conveying some part of their "closeness" with God to the recipient. Wouldn't that tend to make you a lot more particular about who's head you were willing to lay hands on? Might even make you a little bit stingy about it...I don't think I have ever heard an in-depth discussion of this. Also, when someone is sick, we are to call for the elders of the church and they are to lay their hands on the afflicted person. Is something transferred in that situation also? This would be a good study!
Paul tells Timothy not to be ashamed.
2021 - Here is the verse:
8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, [2Ti 1:8 ESV]
The implication is that Timothy is at least a little ashamed of Paul at this time. Would it have something to do with Paul's activities while he was free from house arrest? We know absolutely nothing of that time. We know that Paul had some real "set to's" with the leaders in Corinth at one time, maybe something more happened there. Or maybe Paul avoided the previous trouble spots? Or maybe, in what I would consider typical Pauline fashion, he went right to most controversial spot there was - where persecution and corruption were most rampant - and preached the gospel loud and long, leading to his second arrest? My point is that this change of disposition toward Paul by "all those in Asia" and by clear implication in this verse, even by Timothy, was probably precipitated by an event that was known far and wide. And we are the only ones in the dark about it. Couple this with my opinion that in 2Cor, I think Paul admits to losing his temper and possibly attacking physically some of the false teachers in Corinth. It really could have been this very "failure" that had become widely known while Paul was in Rome, that made many embarrassed to have supported him. Hmm...I think that is a real possibility.
2020 - Perhaps Timothy is in fear of Roman persecution - or maybe he is afraid of being reported to the Roman authorities - if he shares the gospel with strangers! In modern times, in our culture, we are afraid of being ridiculed for sharing the gospel. But Timothy was less worried about that and more worried about a prison cell.
This verse, that bothered me the first time I took notes on this book also:
15 You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. [2Ti 1:15 ESV]
This is probably more about the church leaders in various churches who have denied that they know Paul in order to escape persecution themselves. Maybe they've even provided testimony against him to save themselves. People do strange things when the authorities threaten to imprison their wives and children. Many might stand firm for themselves, but the Romans made no such distinction. Aren't we lucky today in that regard!?
MSB also points out that Paul didn't mean the Asian continent had turned against him, but the Roman province of Asia, part of modern Turkey. It also corroborates that the two named were likely promising leaders who folded under pressure.
In 16, Paul mentions Onesiphorous, a good friend and loyal, who still visits him and looks after him as he can. So not "everyone" had abandoned Paul.
2021 - Oh my....The seven churches of Revelation are all in the Roman province of Asia. None of the seven is in any other province. And here Paul singles them ALL out - even Philadelphia - as having turned against him during this period of intense persecution. Is this why John sent messages to Asia and no others? Did Rome single out Asia for the persecution of Christians, so they were under a lot more pressure than other churches, like the one in Jerusalem, like Corinth and Thessalonica, Philippi, both Antiochs...None of these others rated a letter from John, but the churches in Asia did. Surely there is something more to this....