Power tempts people to be greedy as few things can. Regardless of how much power we have, it is never enough. We always "need" more. The American Christian often falls victim to this deception: power can solve any "church problem." The deception: if a congregation has the "right person" in the "right position" at the "right time" with the "right power," any wrong can be righted, any error can be corrected, any activity can be controlled, and any waywardness can be redirected. Power can do anything.
Two forces that rarely mix are power and humility. Two forces that rarely see through the same godly eyes are power and compassion. Two forces that rarely are compatible are power and servitude. Two forces that easily become enemies are power and Christ-like attitudes. Power rarely helps the weak. Power rarely rescues the fallen. Power hungers for control.
Servants did not make good kings. Why? When a servant became king, serving was "beneath him." Arrogantly, he looked down on those who continued to serve. Servants existed for "his" benefit. He did not exist for "their" benefit.
Christians do not make good authoritarians. Why? When a Christian becomes an authoritarian he or she sees his or her role as "telling" others what to do, not as serving others. He or she becomes the "Lord's voice," not the "Lord's servant." "Taking charge," not serving, "gets the job done" for God. The assumption: the authoritarian knows what God wants, and He depends on the authoritarian to see that "it gets done."
When Christians stop serving God as dependents and start making God dependent on their choices, ungodly things happen. In the guise of "defending the faith," "protecting the truth," "exposing error," "protecting the church," and "following the ancient paths," ungodly attitudes are justified and wicked acts are sanctified.
God is the Creator. Jesus Christ is Savior. We are servants. Even if we have power, we are servants. Jesus had enormous power, but Jesus was a servant.
2 Timothy 2:24-26
Context: the apostle Paul wrote the younger preacher, Timothy. Paul was his spiritual mentor. Paul had enough confidence in Timothy to use him as a "trouble shooter." He left him in difficult situations to continue the work Paul began [see 1 Timothy 1:1-11]. He sent Timothy into extremely demanding, difficult circumstances [1 Corinthians 4:17]. When Paul wrote this letter we call 2 Timothy, the situation was grave and conditions would get worse. If ever a situation called for the use of power, this was it. But Paul, knowing that he would die soon, did not urge Timothy to use power.
Timothy was the Lord's bondservant. He was servant to the Lord. To be servant to the Lord is not a trivial matter. Moses (Joshua 14:7) and Joshua (Joshua 24:29) were called servants of the Lord. Timothy, as was Moses and Joshua, would be servant to the Lord in difficult, critical times. It would be essential for him to consider himself the Lord's slave.
The Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome. Quarreling never accomplishes God's objectives in the Christian's life or the church. A stressful situation or an urgent need intensifies the importance of not quarreling. Satan, not God, achieves his objectives through human quarreling. To aspire to be servant of the Lord is to assume great responsibility.
The Lord's servant would gently correct those who oppose him. There is a "bookend" context to these verses. In 2:14-23 Paul obviously wrote about Christians. Timothy was to give them reminders and focus them. In chapter 3:1-9 Paul spoke of worsening conditions among Christians as a growing number of Christians reverted to ungodly behavior. In context, Paul urged Timothy to be gentle with Christians who were immature, deceived, misguided, or ungodly. Timothy was not to react as though they were enemies.
The Lord's bondservant wanted these Christians to repent. He wanted them to redirect their lives, to turn around, and work for God instead of against Him.
If they repented, those who opposed would become those who assisted. They would become encouraging brothers and sisters who also worked gently with opposers. Instead of being a part of the problem, they became those who were encouraging solution in Jesus.
It is common for Christians to not want their Christian opposition to repent. They want their Christian opposition to admit error and confirm that they were wrong. However, repentance would mean that they should be accepted and respected as brothers and sisters. It would mean that they would receive opportunity to establish trustworthiness and usefulness. It is hard to provide a person who was a Christian opponent a genuine opportunity to be a respected brother or sister. It is hard to extend a Christian who opposed us a sincere, genuine opportunity to establish a trusting relationship.
God grants repentance. This does not indicate that God arbitrarily, capriciously chooses who will return to Him and who will stubbornly resist Him. It verifies that God is directly involved in the process of faith coming to life and expressing itself in the heart and will of the person. How is God involved? Paul did not explain. That is one of many mysteries of God. God works through the good news of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection to help and bless us. Paul's statement verifies salvation is no more an exclusively human process than it is an exclusively divine process. The opportunity for salvation is extended 100% by God. Salvation is accepted by the cooperative interaction between God and the person.
The interaction of God with the person in producing repentance includes that person being led to a knowledge of the truth. The foundation truths of "the knowledge of the truth" are not a mere acceptance of facts. The foundation truths involve an awareness of the workings of God in the death and resurrection of Jesus. For repentance to occur, the person's knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ must be involved.
They responded by coming to their senses.
They returned to an awareness of God's work, accomplishments, and purposes in Jesus Christ. They no longer reduced God's message and purposes to "wrangling about useless words" (2:14), or "worldly, empty chatter" (2:16), or a rejection of our resurrection (2:18), or a justification of physical desires (2:22), or to accepting and justifying ungodly attitudes and behavior (3:2-5).
They must escape the devil's snare. No animal deliberately, knowledgeably stepped into a snare. The snare caught the animal because it sensed no danger. No Christian deliberately, knowledgeably steps into Satan's snare. We are caught in his snare because we sense no danger. "Coming to their senses" indicates a significant part of their problem was created by the lack of awareness of what the devil had done and is doing. An aware Christian will not remain trapped in the devil's snare.
The devil snares them, not to kill them, but to use them to do his will. His purposes in trapping a Christian is to use the Christian. A Christian who does the devil's will is much more dangerous to other Christians than are the actual workings of the devil personally. We fear the devil. We are terribly suspicious of his every move and effort [with good cause!]. We are not afraid of a Christian. Commonly, the more ungodly the Christian, the less we fear him or her. We are wary of the ungodly Christian, but we are confident that we will not allow him or her to hurt us spiritually. Because of the absence of our fear, the devil uses the snared Christian to accomplish things that he personally and directly could not do.
A powerful temptation confronting the Christian under attack is to regard the opposers' attacks as personal attacks on him or her. We personalize the confrontation. We turn our thoughts inward. We are consumed by the suffering, the pain, and the injustice we endure. As we focus on ourselves, we become blind to the plight of the opposer.
Jesus did not do that. In pain and anguish, he asked God to forgive those who condemned, ridiculed, and executed him. Why? (1) He came to rescue the wicked. (2) He knew that the wicked people responsible for his death did not understand what they were doing.
Timothy's best friend and mentor was to be executed soon (4:6). Turmoil in congregations was on the rise. Things would get worse (3:1-7). Yet, Timothy was not to quarrel. He was to be kind. He was to teach. He was to be patient with those who wronged him. He was to gently correct his opposers. He was to desire their repentance and rescue. His desire was to be that they come to their senses. He was to feel for them. Why? They were the captives of the devil.
Timothy must remember that these people attacked and opposed God, not him. Paul wanted Timothy to rescue those doing the devil's will, not to destroy them. Paul wanted those in the church who were in the devil's snare to repent. Paul wanted Christians who were doing the devil's will to be freed so that they could do God's will.
When we believe that we accomplish God's will by quarreling with mean spirited hearts, we are in the devil's snare. When we believe that we accomplish God's will by destroying fellow believers who serve God, we are doing the devil's will, not God's. God's servants don't quarrel.
Link to Student Guide Quarter 2, Lesson 11