3 You therefore are to endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.[b] 4 No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in the affairs of civilian life; he wants to please the one who enlisted him. 5 Further, if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules 6 —the hardworking farmer should be the first to receive of the fruits.[c] 7 Ponder what I am saying; may the Lord indeed give you understanding in it all.[d]
8 Keep thinking of Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, of David's seed; this is my gospel,[e] 9 for which I am suffering to the point of being in chains like a criminal, but the Word of God is not chained. 10 This is why I endure it all: for the sake of the chosen ones,[f] that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. 11 This is a trustworthy word:
14 Keep reiterating these things, exhorting them[k] before the Lord[l] not to argue about words to no useful purpose[m]—it just ruins the hearers.
15 Make every effort to render yourself approved by God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, handling the Word of the Truth correctly. 16 But shun godless, empty chatter, because those who do it will become increasingly godless,[n] 17 and their word will spread like gangrene—among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 who have wandered away from the Truth, saying that the resurrection has already occurred; and they overturn the faith of some.[o]
19 Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands firm, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,”[p] and let everyone who claims the name of the Lord[q] keep away from unrighteousness. 20 Now in a large house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some, to be sure, are for honor, but some are for dishonor. 21 So if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor,[r] sanctified and useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.
22 Flee the lusts of youth;[s] but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.[t] 23 Refuse foolish and ignorant arguments, knowing that they breed quarrels. 24 Now a slave of the Lord should not quarrel but be gentle towards all, skillful at teaching, forbearing,[u] 25 correcting courteously those who oppose him, in hopes that God may grant them repentance leading to a real knowledge of Truth, 26 and that they may retrieve their senses[v] out of the devil's snare (having been taken captive by him to do his will).‡ Verses 23-26 provide a perspective that is not generally understood. At least some (most?) [all?] of the time that people oppose Biblical values they do so because of satanic influence in their minds. Since Satan is the ‘father of lies’ (John 8:44), he is behind any and every lie. So whenever anyone embraces a lie (materialism, humanism, relativism, spiritism, animism, whatever) they invite Satan into their minds. Once there he goes about setting up strongholds. As Ephesians 2:2 says, he is actively at work in the ‘sons of the disobedience’—when you embrace a lie you reject the Truth; but then you are taken captive by the lie and wind up doing Satan's will. This process goes area by area, which explains why people can be good in one area and bad in another (the reference is not to physical skills). So when someone opposes God's truth and His values, we need to understand and remember how the person got that way; actually, they are being used. To lash out at them will not help them. A gentle, courteous probing of their presuppositions just might. More to the point, we have access to spiritual authority whereby we can break Satan's strongholds, but that gets us into the area of biblical spiritual warfare (extremely important, but too extensive to expound here). At one time I did a lot of study and work in this area and have some material that is available from my site:
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a The future of the Church depends on this.
b When we complain about our circumstances, are we forgetting that we are soldiers?
c I believe the verse could be just as well translated as, ‘the hardworking farmer must first receive of the fruits’, the point being that he has to have seed before he can plant the subsequent crop.
d To succeed requires commitment, dedication, whether you are a soldier, an athlete or a farmer.
e This brief statement evokes much of the essence of the Gospel. “David's seed” recalls that the Creator really became human, with David's genes, and fulfills the prophecies about the Messiah. “Raised from the dead” recalls everything connected with His death and resurrection. Thinking about Jesus is a good antidote to discouragement.
f They are “chosen” but Paul has to suffer so that they may obtain. See 2 Corinthians 1:5-7, Philippians 3:10, Colossians 1:24 and 1 Peter 4:13.
g We must really identify with Christ's death, which involves commitment and a change of life, a change of worldview.
h Although most versions supply ‘with Him’ in verses 11-12, it is only in this last clause that the pronoun actually occurs, but because it does, the ‘with Him’ is correctly understood. Notice the heavy emphasis on human responsibility—if we endure (but only if) we will reign; if we deny Him, He will certainly deny us.
i Since He remains faithful, He picks us up when we stumble; but not if we deny Him.
j There are at least two things that God cannot do: deny Himself (2 Timothy 2:13) and lie (Titus 1:2—which would be a form of denying His nature).
k I suppose that the antecedent of this pronoun is to be found in 2:2 above.
l Instead of “the Lord”, perhaps 10% of the Greek manuscripts have ‘God’ (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.).
m This would not include a serious discussion of an important doctrinal point.
n Comparing this with what the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 12:34-37, those who speak godlessly do so because their heart is godless; and the more they do it the worse they get, because they continually reinforce their godlessness.
o Surely; if the resurrection has already happened and you are still here, what hope have you?
p See Numbers 16:5.
q Instead of “the Lord”, perhaps 10% of the Greek manuscripts have ‘Christ’ (as in AV and NKJV).
r The analogy here is not clear to me, but I take the point to be that the believer should avoid contamination from those who are dishonorable.
s Do not play with it, to see if you are strong enough to resist—just run!
t This requires fellowship with others of like mind.
u I take the basic meaning of this term to be to handle opposition with maturity.
v Without our help they almost certainly will not.
w Verses 23-26 provide a perspective that is not generally understood. At least some (most?) [all?] of the time that people oppose Biblical values they do so because of satanic influence in their minds. Since Satan is the ‘father of lies’ (John 8:44), he is behind any and every lie. So whenever anyone embraces a lie (materialism, humanism, relativism, spiritism, animism, whatever) they invite Satan into their minds. Once there he goes about setting up strongholds. As Ephesians 2:2 says, he is actively at work in the ‘sons of the disobedience’—when you embrace a lie you reject the Truth; but then you are taken captive by the lie and wind up doing Satan's will. This process goes area by area, which explains why people can be good in one area and bad in another (the reference is not to physical skills). So when someone opposes God's truth and His values, we need to understand and remember how the person got that way; actually, they are being used. To lash out at them will not help them. A gentle, courteous probing of their presuppositions just might. More to the point, we have access to spiritual authority whereby we can break Satan's strongholds, but that gets us into the area of biblical spiritual warfare (extremely important, but too extensive to expound here). At one time I did a lot of study and work in this area and have some material that is available from my site: www.prunch.org.