2 TIMOTHY 3
Ques Is there more failure in this dispensation than in any other?
CAC There was a time when God had not revealed Himself. The full light of God has come out in Christ; it has all been manifested in Him. The Spirit is here; it is a day of divine resource, so that any failure in the church period is more serious than in any other period. A new element of evil has been brought in that was never there before. Judas went out from the circle of divine love and carried an element into the world which had never existed before; it was the element of apostasy. He went out from the brightest light that ever shone in this world; it was a very solemn thing. Those people, once in the christian profession, who have apostatised or are on the way to apostasy have really gone out of the light of christianity. It is the result of going out of the light. Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses by imitation. Moses acted in divine power but those people resisted him by imitation.
The only antidote to all the evil present was what had been seen in Paul and that which Paul is encouraging Timothy to go on with. He is to follow Paul, and we are to follow Paul’s teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, endurance. Those things will preserve us from all departure. To follow what is of God is the only safeguard; there is movement. To follow up gives the idea of movement.
Rem It shows that the truth has a living power.
[p. 411] CAC It is of vital importance to be on the lifeline. The positive side of things is the line of vitality, and what is vital is shown in movement. The energy of life came out fully in Paul; it was fully exhibited in him. Timothy was to follow Paul, and it is for us to follow also. The literal reading gives the idea of energy that pursues things. You pursue things if you want to reach them.
Rem ‘To advance be all our care’.
CAC Yes, that is a fine principle and the only safeguard against apostasy. There are two classes contemplated in Hebrews: those going on to perfection, and those who draw back to perdition. Which are we pursuing? The going on preserves us. God would have us occupied more with what is positive and good. He tells us of evil, but would have us occupied with good and pursuing it.
Rem The truth has an important place; teaching, etc., is covered by that.
CAC The Lord could say, “I am the truth”. Saints cannot say that, but we are told that the Spirit is the truth and the Spirit dwells in the saints, and so in that way the saints become the vessels of truth.
Rem It is remarkable how teaching is put before conduct.
CAC Teaching must always be the first thing; if the teaching is not sound, the wells are poisoned. It is remarkable that most of what Paul says is of a very practical nature.
Rem All came out personally in the Lord Jesus. Paul had to carry on the life of faith; the life of Christ is the life of a christian.
CAC Yes, nothing is of any value but what is living in Christ. We were speaking of being on the lifeline; it is the life of Christ. You get the spring of it all in the teaching; and the result is persecution and suffering.
Rem So that suffering becomes the lot of all who live piously in Christ Jesus.
CAC It is the kind of thing that does not commend itself to men at all. There is no other way for the godly now than to live piously in Christ Jesus.
Rem Everything is consistent with the revelation. With Abraham his piety was consistent with the revelation he had, and christianity must be consistent with what has been revealed.
CAC It is living piously in this new line of life which God has brought in. It is the moral effect of revelation. The [p. 412] religious systems are built up on the wrong man. The true character of Christianity is very little known. It is very much connected with man as in flesh, but true piety in Christ Jesus is really on the line of God’s anointed Man; and if God comes out and reveals Himself, He must set aside man in the flesh, religious or otherwise. If you take the scripture before us we see the conduct, purpose, and faith of Paul. He had had every advantage as a man in flesh, but he considered it all loss for Christ; he cast all his natural advantages aside, and suffered the loss of all things. That was his conduct, faith and purpose. The will of God came out in him. The word ‘purpose’ is very important. I have thought that desire is the result of new birth. Everyone born again has desire, but purpose is the result of having the Spirit. In purpose, one is definitely set, there is power. You must have power to say, “O God, my heart is fixed”. Many people say that, and then, when they get outside the door, the smallest thing turns them away!
Ques Would you say that purpose is the counterpart of will in a Christian?
CAC If purpose does not take the place of will, we shall not make much headway as Christians. Purpose leads to activity and it gives definiteness; it is what characterises the man of God. It is very important; there is so much that is purposeless amongst saints. It was what the Lord complained of in Laodicea: “Thou art neither cold nor hot”. There was a slack state, easy-going, drifting. How many saints appear all right outwardly, but are really marked by indefiniteness — there is just a condition of drifting with surrounding circumstances. Paul was marked by purpose. A man without purpose in life is of little value; he is very much like a jelly-fish.
Rem I suppose it is in Philippians 3 that Paul’s purpose comes out; he had a fixed heart, “That I may win Christ”.
CAC Yes, he was set to have Christ for his gain. To a man of purpose there is no difficulty. We all have proved, I am sure, that if there is ever so little purpose the Lord has helped us, but if we have not had purpose we have not had the Lord’s support, and have found things too difficult for us.
Rem Paul experienced special deliverance from the Lord.
CAC Yes, and it is very striking how he refers to things at the beginning of his career. Antioch, Iconium and Lystra were the places that he visited at the beginning of his calling. He had experience there of how the Lord helped him. It is a [p. 413] great thing to have something to look back to in your history, some time when the Lord has been strong on your behalf and has helped you. It is good to look back to a time of difficulty that you have gone through and have found the Lord sufficient. What a time it was! It is a great principle with God to give a man a taste of what he may expect at the very beginning. It was at Lystra that Paul was stoned and left for dead. Fourteen years after he speaks of the time when he was caught up to paradise; it exactly corresponds with the time when he was stoned. He was left for dead, and the Lord came in, and gave him a taste of heaven; he was taken up to paradise and heard wonderful things. The Lord can deliver and give you heavenly compensation. Paul was taken up for dead but it seems possible that then it was that his spirit went to paradise. Fancy coming back into this world with heavenly secrets in his heart, things that he cannot ever tell anyone! It must have given him an immense sense of the Lord’s triumph and grace.
Rem I suppose the apostle wrote the epistles from an overflowing heart?
CAC That is really the difference between the New Testament and the Old. The Old Testament was written as the Lord made them write; they probably did not understand what they wrote; but the New Testament is man’s own experiences. The writing of the epistles was part of Paul’s responsible service.
I think the taking up of the cross implies that a man is prepared to go that way. If a man was seen with his cross everyone well knew that he was on the way to execution. Timothy knew all those things; he had seen them in Paul and had been taught from the Scriptures, and he was to ‘abide’ in all those things and not to be moved away. He had learnt things livingly, he had been in living contact with Paul. We learn too much from books. Timothy was Paul’s true child, that is, he was like him. The Scriptures have a great value in a day of departure; every letter of Scripture is important. The whole controversy sometimes turns on a letter; for example, “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed; which is Christ”, Galatians 3: 16. If you added one letter you would spoil it. Scripture furnishes us with everything that is necessary; we do not need to go out of Scripture for anything. The man of God is fully fitted by Scripture. Scripture is very wonderful.
Ques What is the thought of being wise [p. 414] unto salvation?
CAC Salvation is in Christ Jesus. There is everything in Him to secure the soul from all sources of evil. There is divine wisdom which the Scriptures are able to give on the line of faith in Christ Jesus; that is, one who has the faith that is in Christ Jesus would have an apprehension of Scripture. One would have a sense of the way in which Scripture applies to every difficulty and in that way saints may become wise unto salvation; they are not caught with any subtle snare of the enemy. Everything that is contrary to good works has become corrected.
Timothy followed up what he had seen in Paul; that was the line he was on. That is the line we should be on, too; we have to follow up what is vital. There was perfect transparency in the Lord and in the apostle. We ought to consider more than we have done the life and character of Paul. You see christianity in Paul; if I may say so, you cannot quite see it in Christ, that is to say, you do not see the divine triumph in Christ because He was a Man out of heaven. You see the divine triumph in Paul, “who before was a blasphemer and persecutor, and an insolent overbearing man”. It is in such a man you see the divine triumph! People say, We must be occupied with Christ. Yes, I say, and with Paul also! He is put before us as a model, and the spirit and service of Paul are an integral part of christianity. He says you have “fully known my doctrine, manner of life”. That is the triumph. In Christ you see the power and grace that could effect the triumph, but in Paul you see the triumph. If ever a man was marked by what was diabolical it was Paul, and yet you see such a man transformed; the Spirit and life and ways of Christ reproduced and perpetuated in a man who still has the flesh in him, who is still, as we say, in a mixed condition. There is the triumph of God!
Rem We read that Saul was to be changed to another man.
CAC Yes, those early chapters of Samuel show us the moral road to the kingdom; they are most instructive.