2 Timothy

Paul wrote to his little buddy again, apparently a short time before his death. He sounded lonely, depressed and worried (and not a little bitter!) about people leaving the church, dropping their faith.

2 Tim 1:6,7 - For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.
Apparently, Paul is thinking that the gift of God has worn off in Timothy. Also, he thinks that God, working alone, can't fix the problem. Instead, he wants to fix the problem himself by laying his hands on Timothy! This is the thinking of magic, and it has very little to do with the real world.

2 Tim 1:15-18 - You are aware that all who are in Asia have turned away from me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain; when he arrived in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me - may the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! And you know very well how much service he rendered in Ephesus.
As I said, Paul sounds quite lonely in this letter. It makes me wonder, in fact, why he wasn't able to retain more friends? Could it be that he wasn't all that much fun to be around? Would you like to hang around someone who was fond of condemning to hell anyone who expressed any thought he didn't like?

2 Tim 2:14 - Remind them of this, and warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening.
I hear this sort of statement all the time. Don't worry yourself over individual words or single verses! The Bible must be judged in terms of the "unified whole!" Unfortunately, the message we have to work with is made up of written words, and as I have seen in so many other places in the Bible, those words have major problems!

2 Tim 2:16-18 - Avoid profane chatter, for it will lead people into more and more impiety, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth by claiming that the resurrection has already taken place. They are upsetting the faith of some.
Imagine that! Even Paul had problems with people being confused about the date of the rapture!

2 Tim 2:24-26 - And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, patient, correcting opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth, and that they may escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.
This is one meaty statement! First, in my experience, it is rare to find a Christian who can talk calmly and patiently with me about their religion, as Paul instructs here. Most of the time, I get impatience, anger, fear and revulsion. The other thing that I find most interesting is the re-statement that Paul assumes that non-believers are slaves to the devil, and that they are not free agents. How captives who have no control over their minds could possibly be justly condemned if this were the case is beyond me.

2 Tim 3:1-5 - You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them!
Paul's description of a sign of the end of the world is far from impressive. Some may say that today's world is an accurate reflection of Paul's prediction. The weak point on this is that Paul used the same words to describe everything that he found to be wrong with outsiders in his day. He was implying that the end was near in his time. And a case could be made that this prediction was true at just about anytime between now and then. As I said earlier - FAR from impressive!

2 Tim 3:12-15 - Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But wicked people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
The funny thing (tragically so) is that Christians today still look to this prediction and claim that they are being persecuted! Of course now, the persecution takes the form of being ignored and not being allowed to impose their will on their neighbors with impudence. In the face of this horrible imposition, you can just imagine the comfort to be found in reading the sacred writings as I have done!

2 Tim 3:16,17 - All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
I've heard, on occasion, Christians point to this passage as proof that the Bible is God's word - because Paul said so! I think Paul was less than an objective witness. The evidence I've seen and recorded points to a far different conclusion. In fact, much of it is good for training people in the working of the greatest evils of human history, such as the Crusades, the Inquisitions, and the genocides perpetrated by European colonizers in the Americas, Asia and Australia, all of whom had Christian, Bible-studying priests along for the ride!

2 Tim 4:3,4 - For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.
One man's doctrine is another man's myth. Paul thinks his doctrine is sound and useful and (above all) correct. He had no problem finding the problems with other religious systems, just as people in those other systems had no problem seeing the problems with his. Logically, you can easily find an explanation for this situation - they're ALL myths!

2 Tim 4:14,15 - Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will pay him back for his deeds. You also must beware of him, for he strongly opposed our message.
Paul had a contract out for this Alexander with God! And what harm did he do to Paul? Why, he "strongly opposed" the message Paul was passing around! It never occurred to Paul to think that this Alexander MIGHT have had a point. No, instead, Paul passes around advice to keep his followers from coming into contact with this heretic, lest someone hear what the man has to say and maybe begin to think that maybe Paul's a crank!