2 Timothy 1:
v6: This is the second time Paul encourages Timothy to stir up the gift imparted to him. I think this means that God wants us to do the same. We all have gifts from above. If we do not stir them up, they tend to fade in use. How do we stir them up? Pray and read the Word. It’ll happen.
v7: A tremendous verse of power and encouragement – “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and sound mind.” When the devil attacks us in our thought life, quote this one back at him a few times and he will leave you alone. A very good friend of mine tangled with a real demon years ago and he became so frightened that he thought he was losing his sanity. So he prayed and picked up his Bible and opened to this verse! Fear and insanity gone in an instant. This verse is the only place in the whole Bible that deals with these two problems at once! God is faithful and good.
v8: Because of verse 7 we are not to be ashamed of the story of Jesus.
v10: Jesus has abolished death…wow!
v14: The faith in Jesus that is in our heart is described here as a treasure (or good deposit) from God Himself. God looks at this treasure and rejoices over it (us). It’s sort of like a farmer planting an expensive, choice, premium seed into great soil and he is happily looking forward to enjoying the beautiful plant that it will bring forth. We are like that beautiful plant that God will enjoy for eternity.
2 Timothy 2:
v9: Paul states that even though he is in prison, the Word of God is not.
Application for Today: No matter what circumstance God has put us in, His Word can spread via us to others if we are walking in the Spirit. This is why Paul could endure all the bad things that happened to him – he knew God uses them to spread His Word to others (stated in v10).
v12: Finally a little hint to what we will be doing in heaven – reigning with Jesus. I’m still not sure why any reigning would be needed, though.
v13: What a promise! – “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.” We are one with Him.
v14-15: Avoid “wrangling about words” – paraphrase = “don’t get too intellectual so that pride takes over so that a debate over non important issues clouds the simple yet powerful truth of God’s Word.” Rather it says to “handle accurately the word of truth.” This means be sure to say what the Spirit meant and always consider the whole context of both Testaments.
v16-17: Avoid worldly talk because it spreads like gangrene or cancer. This means it has destructive influence upon people who hear and repeat these things.
v24-26: The servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome, kind, able to teach, patient when (not if) wronged so that they have the better chance to finally respond to God’s Truth and be saved.
2 Timothy 3:
v1-5: Describes signs of the difficulties during the “last days” (which started with Jesus first coming). Some of those signs include: people will be lovers of self, arrogant, disobedient to parents, malicious gossips, without self-control, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Sound familiar? Sobering, eh? The clincher is that many people will be religious – “holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.” The Word commands us to avoid these people.
Here’s a quick comparison of true Christianity and Religion:
True Christianity Religion
God’s spirit emanating through us External control
Wanting to attend church Have to attend church
Delight to serve God Duty to serve God
Necessary work done by God Must do things yourself
Love relationship with Jesus Strive to obey rules
Joy No joy
v7: “Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Sounds like our technology explosion as well as our government-run education system, and even our beloved evolutionists.
v12: “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Ouch! But it will be for the glory of God. How so? When a righteous person is “treated like dirt,” onlookers perk up and notice that there is an inner strength foreign to them. It just might encourage them to find out what that is. This is one reason why Christianity spread faster than any other religion at its beginning – people were willing to be thrown to the lions and die rather than renounce their faith in Jesus. Today we may not have to face literal lions, but there are a lot of figurative lions out there ready to pounce all over us for expressing the non-PC Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of all. If we are persecuted for His sake, a tremendous reward awaits us in Heaven (Matthew 5:11-13).
v16: “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” Man did not write the Bible, God did through many different men over hundreds of years, and WITH NO CONTRADICTIONS, despite the claims of some.
2 Timothy 4:
v2: My interpretation = Always be ready to share the Word of God whether or not it is convenient.
v3: There will be times when people will believe what they want to believe and will bring to themselves teachers who will tell them what they want to hear.
v4: They will turn away from truth and turn to myths. Evolution is a great example.
v6-7: Paul is aware that he will die soon and can say that he has “fought the good fight” and has “kept the faith.”
Application for Today: Let us live in a way that we can say the same near the end of our lives.