The turn, and the passage

Part One left us in a great house with two kinds of vessel standing on the same shelf. Paul named two of the dishonourable ones out loud — Hymenaeus and Philetus, whose teaching spreads like gangrene and has overthrown the faith of some (2 Timothy 2:17–18).

So what does the apostle tell Timothy to do about them?

Not to expose them. Not to purge them. Not to win the argument in front of the church. He tells him to be gentle.

This is the turn, and it should stop us. The man who wrote gangrene in verse 17 writes gentle to all in verse 24. The man who named the false teachers hopes, in verse 25, that God perhaps will grant them repentance. Paul is not soft on the error for one moment. He is astonishingly patient with the man.

And this is exactly what Part One demanded. Verse 21 said a vessel of dishonour can be cleansed — that the metallurgy is an illustration, not a sentence. Verses 24–26 now tell us how another man may help that happen. Wood cannot become gold. But a man can come to his senses.

The passage

The doorway is verse 22, which Part One ended on. Read it first, because a man who has not walked through it has no business attempting verses 24–26.

2 Timothy 2:22 — “Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”

2 Timothy 2:23–26 — “But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”