Biblical Essays
PROVISION FOR PERILOUS TIMES
2 Timothy
It is of the greatest importance for the servant of Christ in all ages to have a clear, deep, abiding, influential sense of position, path, portion and prospects – a divinely wrought apprehension of the ground that Christians are called to occupy, the sphere of action that is thrown open to us, the divine provision made for our comfort, encouragement, strength, guidance, and the brilliant hopes held out to us. There is considerable danger of our being allured into a mere region of theory and speculation, of opinion and sentiment, of dogmas and principles. The freshness of first love is frequently lost by contact with the men and things of what may be called “the religious world.” The lovely freshness of early personal Christianity is often destroyed by a wrong use of the machinery of religion, if we may be allowed to use such a term.
It frequently happens in the kingdom of nature that some stray seed has dropped into the ground, taken root and sprung up into a tender plant. The hand of man had nothing to do with it. God planted it, watered it and made it grow. He assigned it its position, gave it its strength and covered it with beautiful freshness. By and by, man intruded on its solitude and transplanted it to his own artificial enclosure, there to wither and droop. So it often is with the plants of God’s spiritual kingdom – injured by man's rude hand. They would be far better if left to the sole management of the Hand that planted them. Young Christians frequently suffer immensely from not being left to the exclusive training of the Holy Spirit through the exclusive teaching of Holy Scripture. Human management is almost sure to stunt the growth of God’s spiritual plants. It is not that God may not use men as His instruments in watering, culturing and caring for His precious plants. He assuredly may do so and does, but then, it is God’s culture and care, not man’s. This makes all the difference. The Christian is God’s plant. The seed that produced him was divine. It was directed and planted by God’s own hand, and that same hand must be allowed to train it.
What is true of the individual believer is equally true of the Lord’s church. In 1 Timothy the church is looked at in its original order and glory. It is there viewed as “the House of God,” “the Church of the living God,” “the pillar and ground of the truth.” Its office-bearers, functions and responsibilities are there minutely and formally described. The servant of Christ is instructed regarding the mode in which he is to conduct himself in the midst of such a hallowed and dignified sphere. Such is the character, the scope and object of Paul’s First Epistle to Timothy.
But in the Second Epistle, we have something quite different. The scene is entirely changed. The house that in the first epistle was looked at in its rule is here contemplated in its ruin. As an economy set up on the earth, the church, like every other economy, had utterly failed. Man fails in everything. He failed amid the beauty and order of Paradise. He failed in that favored land “that flowed with milk and honey, the glory of all lands.” He failed amid the rare privileges of the Gospel dispensation (compare Gen. 3; Judg. 2; Acts 20:29; 3 John 9; Rev. 1:2 and 20:7-9).
Remembering this will help us better understand 2 Timothy. It may properly be termed “a divine provision for perilous times.” The apostle seems to be weeping over the ruins of that once beautiful structure. Like the weeping prophet, he beholds “the stones of the sanctuary poured out in the top of every street.” He calls to remembrance the tears of his beloved Timothy. He is glad to have even one sympathizing bosom into which to pour his sorrows. All in Asia had turned away from him. He was left to stand alone before Caesar’s judgment seat. Demas forsook him. Alexander the coppersmith did him much evil. As far as man was concerned, all around him looked gloomy and dark. He begs of his beloved Timothy to bring his cloak, books and parchments. All is strongly marked. “Perilous times” are anticipated. “A form of godliness without the power” – the mantle of profession thrown over the grossest abominations of the human heart – men not able to endure sound doctrine, heaping to themselves teachers after their own lusts, having itching ears which had to be tickled by the fabulous and baseless absurdities of the human mind. Such are the features of 2 Timothy. Who can fail to notice them? Who can fail to see that our lot is cast in the very midst of the evils and dangers here contemplated? Is it not good to have a clear perception of these things? Why should we desire to blind our eyes to the truth?
Why deceive ourselves with vain dreams of increasing light and spiritual prosperity? Is it not far better to look the true condition of things straight in the face? Certainly it is, and so much more when the selfsame epistle that so faithfully points out “the perilous times,” fully unfolds the divine provision.
Why should we imagine that under the Christian dispensation man would prove any better than man under all the dispensations that had gone before? Even in the absence of direct and positive proof, would not analogy lead us to expect failure under this present economy as well as under all the others? If, without exception, we find judgment at the close of all the other dispensations, why should we look for anything else at the close of this? Let us ponder these things as we unfold some of the divine provisions for “perilous times.”
We are not attempting herein to expound on this touching and interesting epistle in detail. This would be impossible in a short essay. We merely seek to single out one point from each of the four chapters into which the epistle has been divided. They are: “unfeigned faith” (2 Tim. 1:5); “the sure foundation” (2 Tim. 2:19); “the Holy Scriptures” (2 Tim. 3:15); and “the crown of righteousness” (2 Tim. 4:8). Knowing the power of these things, makes one divinely provided for “perilous times.”
First, “the unfeigned faith”
Regarding this priceless possession, the apostle says, “I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day; greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy; when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.”
Here we have something above and beyond everything ecclesiastical – something that one must have before he is introduced to the Lord’s church; something that will stand good though the church be in ruins around him. This unfeigned faith immediately connects the soul with Christ in the power of a link that of necessity must be prior to all ecclesiastical associations, however important they may be – a link that will endure when all earthly associations have forever been dissolved. We do not get to Christ through the church. We get to Christ first, and then to His church. Christ is our life, not the church. No doubt, church fellowship is valuable, but there is something above and beyond it, and “unfeigned faith” is that something. Timothy had this faith dwelling in him before he ever entered the house of God. He was connected with the God of the house previous to association with the house of God.
It is good to be clear about this. We must never surrender the intense individuality that characterizes “unfeigned faith.” We must carry it with us through all the scenes and circumstances, the links and associations of our Christian life and service. We must not traffic in mere church position or build on religious machinery or be borne up by a routine of duty, or cling to the worthless props of sectarian sympathy or denominational preference. Let us cultivate those fresh, vivid and powerful affections created in our heart when first we knew the Lord. Let the beautiful blossom of our spring-time not be succeeded by barrenness and sterility, but by those mellow clusters that spring from realized connection with the root.
Too often it is otherwise. Too often the earnest, zealous, simple-hearted young Christian is lost in the bigoted, narrow-minded member of a sect, or the intolerant defender of some peculiar opinion. The freshness, softness, simplicity, tenderness and earnest affection of our young days are rarely carried forward into the advanced stages of vigorous manhood and mature old age. Frequently, one finds a depth of tone, a richness of experience, of moral elevation in the early stages of the Christian life that soon gives way to a chilling formalism in one’s personal ways, or a mere energy in the defense of some barren system of theology. How rarely are those words of the Psalmist realized, “They shall bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing” (Ps. 42:14).
No doubt, most of us want to more diligently cultivate an “unfeigned faith.” We want to enter into the linking power binding us individually to Christ with more spiritual vigor. This would render us “fat and flourishing,” even in old age. “The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.”
We suffer materially by allowing what is called Christian fellowship to interfere with our personal connection and communion with Christ. We are far too prone to substitute fellowship with man for fellowship with God; to walk in the footsteps of men, rather than in the footsteps of Christ; to look around rather than upward for sympathy, support and encouragement.
These are not the fruits of “unfeigned faith” – quite the opposite. “Unfeigned faith” is as blooming and vigorous amid the solitudes of a desert as in the bosom of an assembly. Its immediate, all-engrossing business is with God Himself. “It endures as seeing Him who is invisible.” It fixes its earnest gaze on things unseen and eternal. “It enters into that within the veil.” It lives amid the unseen realities of an eternal world. Having conducted the soul to the feet of Jesus, there to get a full and final forgiveness of sins through His most precious blood, “Unfeigned faith” bears it majestically onward through all the windings and labyrinths of desert life, enabling it to bask in the bright beams of eternal glory.
The first precious item in the divine provision for “perilous times” is “unfeigned faith.” We cannot get by without it. Let the times be peaceful or perilous, easy or difficult, rough or smooth, dark or bright – if we lack this faith; if it is not deeply implanted and diligently cultivated in us, then sooner or later we will break down. For a time, we may be influenced and urged on by the impulses of surrounding circumstances. We may be propped up and borne along by our co-religionists. We may float along with the stream of religious profession. But without “unfeigned faith,” we can be sure that the time is rapidly approaching when the “perilous times” will rise to a head. Then the awful crisis of judgment will come, from which none can escape except the happy possessors of “unfeigned faith.”
Second, “the sure foundation”
“Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Tim. 2:9). In the midst of all the “trouble,” the “hardness,” the “striving about words,” the “profane and vain babblings,” the errors of “Hymenaeus and Philetus” – in the midst of all these varied features of the “perilous times,” how precious to fall back on God’s sure foundation. The soul that is built on this, in the divine energy of “unfeigned faith,” is able to resist the rapidly rising tide of evil – is divinely furnished for the most appalling times. There is a fine moral link between the unfeigned faith in the heart of man and the sure foundation laid by the hand of God. All may go to ruin. The church may go to pieces and all who love the church may have to sit down and weep over its ruins, but always there stands that imperishable foundation laid by God’s own hand, against which the surging tide of error and evil may roll with all its fury, but will have no effect, except to prove the eternal stability of that Rock and of all who are built thereon.
“The Lord knoweth them that are His.” It does not require rocket science to conclude that there is an abundance of false profession, but the eye of Jehovah rests on those who belong to Him. Not one of His own is, or ever can be forgotten by Him. Their names are engraved on His heart. They are as precious to Him as the price He paid for them – the “precious blood” of His own dear Son. No weapon formed by the evil one can prosper against them. “The eternal God is their refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” What rich, what ample provision for “perilous times.” Why should we fear? Why should we be anxious? Having “unfeigned faith” within and God’s foundation beneath, it is our happy privilege to pursue our upward and onward way in the assurance that all is and forever shall be well. “‘I know My sheep,’ He cries, ‘My soul approves them well: Vain is the treacherous world’s disguise, And vain the rage of hell.’”
It has been well said that the seal on God’s foundation has two sides. One bears the inscription, “The Lord knoweth them that are His”; the other, “Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” The former is as peace-giving as the latter is practical. Let the strife and confusion be great, let the storm rage and the billow arise, let the darkness thicken, let all the powers of earth and hell combine, “the Lord knoweth them that are His.” He has sealed them for Himself. The assurance of this is calculated to maintain the heart in profound repose, no matter how “perilous” be the “times.”
But, let us never forget that each one who “names the name of Christ” is solemnly responsible to “depart from iniquity,” wherever he may find it. This is applicable to all true Christians. The moment we see anything that deserves the epithet of “iniquity,” no matter what or where it may be, we are called on to “depart from” that thing. We are not to wait till others see with us, for what may seem to be “iniquity” to one, may not seem to be so to another. Hence, it is entirely a personal question – “Let every one.” The language used in this epistle is personal, strong, and very intense. “If a man purge himself.” “Flee also youthful lusts.” “From such turn away.” “Continue thou.” “I charge thee.” “Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions.” “Of whom be thou aware also.” These are solemn, earnest, weighty words – words distinctly proving that our lot is cast in times when we must not lean on the arm or gaze on the countenance of others.
We must be sustained by the energy of an “unfeigned faith” and by our personal connection with the “sure foundation.” In this way we will be able to “depart from iniquity,” to “flee youthful lusts,” no matter what others may do or think. We will be able to “turn away” from the adherents of a powerless “form of godliness,” wherever we find them, and to “beware” of every “Alexander the coppersmith.” If we permit our feet to be moved from the Rock, if we surrender ourselves to the impulse of surrounding circumstances and influences, we will never be able to make headway against the special forms of evil and error in “perilous times.”
Third, “the Holy Scriptures”
Our third point is “the Holy Scriptures” – that precious portion of every “man of God.” “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:14-17).
Here we have rich provision for “perilous times.” We need a thorough knowledge of the One from “whom we have learned” an accurate, personal, experimental acquaintance with “Holy Scripture,” that pure fountain of divine authority, that changeless source of heavenly wisdom that even a child may possess, and without which a wise man must err.
If a man be not able to refer all his thoughts, convictions, and principles to God as their living source, to Christ as their living center, and to “the Holy Scriptures” as their divine authority, he will never be able to get on through “perilous times.” A second-hand faith will never do. We must hold truth directly from God, through the medium and on the authority of “the Holy Scriptures.” God may use one man to show another certain things in the Word, but we must not take hold of them from man, but from God – “knowing of whom thou hast learned.” When this is the case we are, through grace, able to make it through the thickest darkness and through all the devious paths of this wilderness world. Inspiration’s heavenly lamp emits a very clear, full, and steady light whose brightness is only made more manifest by surrounding gloom. “The man of God” is not left to drink of the muddy streams flowing along the channel of human tradition. With the vessel of “unfeigned faith,” we sit beside the ever-gushing fountain of “Holy Scripture” to drink of its refreshing waters to the full satisfaction of our thirsty soul.
It is worthy of consideration that although the inspired apostle was fully aware of Timothy’s “unfeigned faith” and his knowledge of “the Holy Scriptures” from childhood’s earliest dawn when writing his first epistle, yet he does not allude to these things until his second epistle, when he contemplates the appalling features of the “perilous times.” The reason is obvious. It is in the midst of the perils of “the last days” that one has the most urgent need of “unfeigned faith” and “the Holy Scriptures.” We cannot make it without them. It is comparatively easy to get by when everything around us is fresh and vigorous; when all are borne onward by one common impulse of genuine devotedness; when every heart is full to overflowing of deep and earnest attachment to the Person and cause of Christ; and when every countenance beams with heavenly joy.
But the condition of things contemplated in 2 Timothy is the reverse. It is such, that unless one is walking closely with God in the habitual exercise of “unfeigned faith” – in the abiding realization of the link connecting him indissolubly with “the foundation of God” – and in clear, unquestionable, accurate knowledge of “the Holy Scriptures,” he will certainly be shipwreck. This is a solemn consideration, well worth our undivided, prayerful attention. The time has arrived when each one of us must follow the Lord according to his measure. “What is that to thee? Follow thou Me.” These words fall on the ear with unique power as one seeks to make his way amid the ruins of everything ecclesiastical.
Let us not be misunderstood. It is not that we would detract in the smallest degree from the value of true church fellowship or from the divine institution of the assembly of the Lord’s church and all the privileges and responsibilities attaching thereto. Far be the thought. We believe that Christians are called to seek the maintenance of the highest principles of communion. Moreover, from the epistle that now lies open before us, we are warranted to expect that in the darkest times the “purged vessel” will be able to “follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Tim. 2:22).
All this is plain and has its due place and value, but it in no wise interferes with this fact: each one is responsible to pursue a path of holy independence, without waiting for the approval, sympathy, support, or company of others. True, we are to be thankful for brotherly fellowship when received on true ground. Of such fellowship no words can tell the worth – would that we knew more of it. The Lord increase it to us a hundred fold. But let us never stoop to purchase fellowship at the heavy price of giving up all that is “lovely and of good report.” May the name of Jesus always be more precious to our hearts than all such things. And may our happy lot on earth be cast with all those who truly love His name, as it shall be throughout eternity in the regions of unfading light and purity.
Fourth, “the crown of righteousness”
“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also who love His appearing” (2 Tim. 4:6-8).
Here, the venerable pilgrim takes his stand on the summit of the spiritual Mount Pisgah and with undimmed eye, surveys the bright plains of glory. He sees the crown of righteousness glittering in the Master’s hand. He looks back over the course he has run; over the battlefield whereon he has fought. He stands on the confines of earth, in the midst of the ruins of that church whose rise and progress he had watched with such intense eagerness and over whose decline and fall he had poured forth the tears of tender though disappointed affection, he fixes his eye on the goal of immortality that no power of the enemy can prevent him reaching in triumph. Whether by Caesar’s axe or some other means he was to reach that goal, it mattered not to one who was able to say, “I am ready.” What an example of true greatness, moral grandeur, and noble elevation.
Yet there was nothing of the ascetic in this incomparable servant, for though his vision was filled with the crown of righteousness, though he is ready to step like a conqueror into his triumphal chariot, he nevertheless feels no compulsion about giving detailed directions pertaining to his cloak and books. This is divinely perfect. It teaches us that the more vividly we enter into the glories of heaven, the more faithfully we will discharge the functions of earth. The more we realize the nearness of eternity, the more effectively we will order the things of time.
