repentance--which they need as antecedent to the full knowledge (so the Greek for 'acknowledgment') of the truth" ([1Ti 2:4]), their minds being corrupted ([2Ti 3:8]), and their lives immoral. The cause of the spiritual ignorance which prompts such "questions" is moral, having its seat in the will, not in the intellect ([Joh 7:17]). Therefore repentance is their first need. That, not man, but God alone can "give" ([Ac 5:31]).
26. recover themselves--Greek, "awake to soberness," namely from the spiritual intoxication whereby they have fallen into the snare of the devil.
the snare--([Ep 6:11], "the wiles of the devil": [1Ti 3:7]; ).
taken captive by him at his will--so as to follow the will of "THAT" (the Greek emphatically marks Satan thus) foe. However, different Greek pronouns stand for "him" and "his"; and the Greek for "taken captive" means not "captured for destruction," but "for being saved alive," as in [Lu 5:10], "Thou shalt catch men to save them unto life"; also there is no article before the Greek participle, which the English Version "who are taken captive," would require. Therefore, translate, "That they may awake ... taken as saved (and willing) captives by him (the servant of the Lord, [2Ti 2:24]), so as to follow the will of HIM (the Lord, [2Ti 2:24], or "God," [2Ti 2:25])." There are here two evils, the "snare" and sleep, from which they are delivered: and two goods to which they are translated, awaking and deliverance. Instead of Satan's thrall comes the free and willing captivity of obedience to Christ ([2Co 10:5]). It is God who goes before, giving repentance ([2Ti 2:25]); then the work of His servant following is sure to be crowned with success, leading the convert henceforth to "live to the will of God" ([Ac 22:14]; [1Pe 4:2]).
Chapter 3
[2Ti 3:1-17]. Coming Evil Days: Signs of Evil Already: Contrast in the Doctrine and Life of Paul, Which Timothy Should Follow in Accordance with His Early Training in Scripture.
1. also--Greek, "but."
last days--preceding Christ's second coming ([2Pe 3:3]; Jude 18). "The latter times," [1Ti 4:1], refer to a period not so remote as "the last days," namely, the long days of papal and Greek anti-Christianity.
perilous--literally, "difficult times," in which it is difficult to know what is to be done: "grievous times."
shall come--Greek, "shall be imminent"; "shall come unexpectedly" [Bengel].
2. men--in the professing Church. Compare the catalogue, [Ro 1:29], &c., where much the same sins are attributed to heathen men; it shall be a relapse into virtual heathendom, with all its beast-like propensities, whence the symbol of it is "a beast" ([Re 13:1], [11, 12], &c.; 17:3, 8, 11).
covetous--Translate, "money-loving," a distinct Greek word from that for "covetous" (see on [Col 3:5]). The cognate Greek substantive ([1Ti 6:10]) is so translated, "the love of money is a (Greek, not 'the') root of all evil."
boasters--empty boasters [Alford]; boasting of having what they have not.
proud--overweening: literally, showing themselves above their fellows.
blasphemous--rather, "evil-speakers," revilers.
disobedient to parents--The character of the times is even to be gathered especially from the manners of the young [Bengel].
unthankful--The obligation to gratitude is next to that of obedience to parents.
unholy--irreligious [Alford]; inobservant of the offices of piety.
3. truce-breakers--rather as the Greek is translated in [Ro 1:31], "implacable."
false accusers--slanderers ([1Ti 3:11]; [Tit 2:3]).
incontinent, fierce--at once both soft and hard: incontinently indulging themselves, and inhuman to others.
despisers, &c.--"no lovers of good" [Alford]; the opposite of "a lover of good" ([Tit 1:8]).
4. heady--precipitate in action and in passion.
high-minded--literally, "puffed up" with pride, as with smoke blinding them.
lovers of pleasure ... God--Love of pleasure destroys the love and sense of God.
5. form--outward semblance.
godliness--piety.
denying--rather as Greek, "having denied," that is, renounced.
the power--the living, regenerating, sanctifying influence of it.
turn away--implying that some of such characters, forerunners of the last days, were already in the Church.
6. of this sort--Greek, "of these," such as were described ([2Ti 3:5]).
creep into--stealthily.
laden with sins--([Is 1:4]); applying to the "silly women" whose consciences are burdened with sins, and so are a ready prey to the false teachers who promise ease of conscience if they will follow them. A bad conscience leads easily to shipwreck of faith ([1Ti 1:19]).
divers lusts--not only animal lusts, but passion for change in doctrine and manner of teaching; the running after fashionable men and fashionable tenets, drawing them in the most opposite directions [Alford].
7. Ever learning--some new point, for mere curiosity, to the disparagement of what they seemed to know before.
the knowledge--Greek, "the perfect knowledge"; the only safeguard against further novelties. Gnosticism laid hold especially of the female sex [Estius, 1.13.3]: so Roman Jesuitism.
8. Now--Greek, "But"; it is no wonder there should be now such opponents to the truth, for their prototypes existed in ancient times [Alford].
Jannes ... Jambres--traditional names of the Egyptian magicians who resisted Moses ([Ex 7:11], ), derived from "the unwritten teaching of the Jews" [Theodoret]. In a point so immaterial as the names, where Scripture had not recorded them, Paul takes the names which general opinion had assigned the magicians. Eusebius [Preparation of the Gospel], quotes from Numenius, "Jannes and Jambres were sacred scribes (a lower order of priests in Egypt) skilled in magic." Hiller interprets "Jannes" from the Abyssinian language a trickster, and "Jambres" a juggler" ([Ac 13:8]).
resist--"withstand," as before. They did so by trying to rival Moses' miracles. So the false teachers shall exhibit lying wonders in the last days ([Mt 24:24]; [2Th 2:9]; [Re 13:14], ).
reprobate--incapable of testing the truth ([Ro 1:28]) [Bengel]. Alford takes passively, "not abiding the test"; rejected on being tested ([Jr 6:30]).
9. they shall proceed no further--Though for a time ([2Ti 2:16]) "they shall advance or proceed (English Version, 'increase') unto more ungodliness," yet there is a final limit beyond which they shall not be able to "proceed further" ([Job 38:11]; [Re 11:7], ). They themselves shall "wax worse and worse" ([2Ti 3:13]), but they shall at last be for ever prevented from seducing others. "Often malice proceeds deeper down, when it cannot extend itself" [Bengel].
their folly--literally, "dementation": wise though they think themselves.
shall be manifest--Greek, "shall be brought forth from concealment into open day" [Bengel], ([1Co 4:5]).
as theirs ... was--as that of those magicians was, when not only could they no longer try to rival Moses in sending boils, but the boils fell upon themselves: so as to the lice ([Ex 8:18]; ).
10. fully known--literally, "fully followed up" and traced; namely, with a view to following me as thy pattern, so far as I follow Christ; the same Greek as in [Lu 1:3], "having had perfect understanding of all things." His pious mother Eunice and grandmother Lois would recommend him to study fully Paul's Christian course as a pattern. He had not been yet the companion of Paul at the time of the apostle's persecutions in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra ([Ac 13:50]; , ), but is first mentioned as such [Ac 16:1-3]. However, he was "a disciple" already, when introduced to us in [Ac 16:1-3]; and as Paul calls him "my own son in the faith," he must have been converted by the apostle previously; perhaps in the visit to those parts three years before. Hence arose Timothy's knowledge of Paul's persecutions, which were the common talk of the churches in those regions about the time of his conversion. The incidental allusion to them here forms an undesigned coincidence between the history and the Epistle, indicating genuineness [Paley, Horæ Paulinæ]. A forger of Epistles from the Acts would never allude to Timothy's knowledge of persecutions, when that knowledge is not expressly mentioned in the history, but is only arrived at by indirect inference; also the omission of Derbe here, in the Epistle, is in minute accordance with the fact that in Derbe no persecution is mentioned in the history, though Derbe and Lystra are commonly mentioned together. The reason why he mentions his persecutions before Timothy became his companion, and not those subsequent, was because Timothy was familiar with the latter as an eye-witness and Paul needed not to remind him of them, but the former Timothy had traced up by seeking the information from others, especially as the date and scene of them was the date and scene of his own conversion.