06/15/2024
On May 27, 2024 I was led to today’s Scripture to memorize 2 Timothy 1:15-16. The NASB says “be diligent”, but it also means “hasten” which is to be swift by showing full diligence and applying oneself to accomplish all that God assigns through faith.
When it says “yourself”, the Greek word actually means you bring the action or attention back to or on yourself. For what purpose? To present ourselves approved to God. The word approved is DOKIMOS and it means that one passes the necessary test or scrutiny that makes them acceptable because they are genuine and have been validated and verified as such. When this Greek word was used to for testing coins and verifying their genuineness, it was about testing to see whether or not they were counterfeit or corrupted—which is easily applied to ourselves as well.
So what is being tested? Are we a workmen that is accomplishing all the God has assigned us to do through faith? Because the workmen that has been approved is not ashamed— and the Greek word for “not ashamed” is ANEPAISCHUNTOS. What it means— is that the person is not ashamed because they have discharged the needed responsibility which appropriately accomplishes what God has assigned—but specifically in this Scripture it’s talking about being a good interpreter of Scripture. This particular Greek word is a very rare word and isn’t even used in classical Greek. Again, why are they not ashamed— because it says they are accurately handling or rightly dividing the logos of truth? When you look at the definition of logos, you know that it is in regards to someone sharing a message i.e. discourse, communication or speech, but it is in essence reasoning that is expressed by words. And as one who takes the calling of “teacher“ seriously—-I had better be able to stand before God approved.
But this first verse would not be complete without moving to the second one. What does it mean to avoid? It literally means to turn oneself about for the purpose of avoiding something or shunning it. It means that we position ourselves in such a way that we completely avoid contact. So what is it that someone who is accurately handling the word of truth, avoiding? The NASB says worldly and empty chatter, but that doesn’t quite give you the full picture unless you look at the original Greek word and the full intent. The word for worldly is BEBÉLOS and it’s referring to people unfit to access (know God) because they approach Him apart from faith. It also says improper or unauthorized entry literally because they cross a threshold which profanes because it’s an improper entrance. WOW! If you have been going through “The Kingdom of God” series, that statement alone should truly rock your world and bring you to a deeper revelation of God‘s truth, and the Gospel of the kingdom of God.
But let’s look at the Greek word for “empty babbling”, KENOPHÓNIA —quite simply it is empty disputing or worthless babble. I have a couple of thoughts on this:
First, if we look at our social media feeds, there are a lot of things out there that are not kingdom oriented battles that we need to fight. If I am focused on my citizenship here in this world, then yes, I will get distracted by those things, but if I know where my citizenship truly lies, then I will begin to make decisions of what to and what not to pursue based on the question—“is it or is it not” kingdom, furthering content?
Second, this is also massively about what’s happening inside the so-called “church”. We often hear the phrase—Is this an essential or non-essential thing to be discussing? Which in many cases is a relevant question to be asking; however, I have learned that there are essential things that many call “non-essential” or even go so far as to say “not necessary” or “not applicable today”.
To someone who has come to understand solid biblical foundational truth’s that are being toted to be a non-essential —then it’s not something to let go of but is —as the first Scripture says— about accurately handling the word of truth, and as I like to say “dying on that hill“ not because one wants to cause dissension, but because once one comes to a knowledge of truth, that you KNOW ultimately leads to a life and death decision— you can do nothing but stand.
But, to go on, if someone does not avoid worldly and empty chatter, Paul warns that it WILL lead to further ungodliness. But the Interlinear says “for they will lead on to more ungodliness “. In other words, it is a given assumption that those who are involved in worldly and empty chatter will absolutely by contact with them advance, not just themselves, but those who follow after them to more and greater ungodliness.
And it is huge to understand what it means by ungodliness. It’s about impiety or a lack of reverence not just for God, but for sacred things that God considers approved & acceptable. It’s being irreverent and not respecting the things of God & it is being ungodly because they don’t accept a particular doctrine. They don’t understand what is blasphemous or profane or corrupt.
And the crazy thing about these two verses is that we know from 2 Timothy 3:1-5 that Paul is speaking about so-called professing believers within the body of Christ, who, by all outward appearances appear or have a form of godliness, but as he says, “although they deny its power” and again Paul says, avoid such men as these.
But that is another lesson for another day, which I have been studying quite deeply over the last few months and hope to dive into it even deeper. False doctrine is rampant and many people would say “oh they love Jesus”, so we have to know who they are outside of their facade, that actually proves they’re not truly in love with Jesus and that they are truly not IN the kingdom of God.
And yes, I realize once again this is a lot to chew on, but it also makes understanding why our simple English words don’t do the Truth of Scripture justice. It is also why God has given teachers to the church who have been led by the Holy Spirit to accurately handle the Word and in turn— the Holy Spirit (if one has Him) will work within the the one being taught, helping them come to a revelation of the same truth that is being spoken IF it’s actually truth.
