2 TIMOTHY 3: 1 - 17
All the catholic epistles and those written to individuals contemplate the last days. It is important to see that those used of God to establish things here in Christianity foresaw the ruin of it by the Spirit. John, Jude, Peter and Paul, all contemplate the last days, and the ruin of Christianity, that is, as a system set up here upon earth. The defect was that men did not keep within the limits of the Holy Spirit, and the effect of that was to bring in confusion — it could not be otherwise. Even on the setting up of the system here the ruin was prophetically foretold, for while set up in divine power yet it was in connection with man’s responsibility, and for this latter reason was bound to fail. But so long as the apostles were here there was a power to correct things. We do not find the last days spoken of in the epistles written to Churches, but you do get every form of evil warned against. The evil at Corinth was really high churchism, they were trusting to a sacramental system. In Galatia they were turning back to a past dispensation. But in the later epistles, and in the catholic epistles, things are past recovery, and so you get the last days contemplated.
In chapter 3 we have gone back from faith (chapter 2) to what men are — see chapter 3: 3. “Men shall be lovers of self ...”(verse 2). What is contemplated is [p. 478] men who have the form of piety but denying its power. Man has taken up Christianity to serve his own purpose. If a priestly class came in then you must have a sacramental system. You could not have a priestly class maintained without sacraments. Many people deplore gross exaggeration of things, but still sanction the sacramental system. When people do give up the sacramental system they give up the clergy, for both hang together. What stirred the apostle here was the way the truth was discredited by this kind of thing.
Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, and the principle by which they did so was imitation. They virtually said we could do as well as Moses: so high churchmen in effect ‘we can do as well as you’. You get devotees and a voluntary humility, but these are not the effect of the truth, but of the sacramental system. There is no weapon so powerful in opposing the truth successfully as imitation. We have seen that in the case of those who have left us. Imitation counteracts and opposes the truth. The Spirit of God foresaw the introduction of the sacramental system and what the effect of it would be. Rome will say we can produce people as devoted as you could by the truth. People who are uninstructed find it impossible to discern it; it is so similar. Verse 6, is priest-craft, and a class of people (not women) but who have that character, and laden with sins, led away with divers lusts.
What follows is what marked the apostle’s path (see verses 10 and 11), persecutions, afflictions, etc. If you get a priestly class of unconverted people, they are really men of corrupt mind and reprobate concerning the faith (see verse 8). If one of the priestly class became converted, he could not be a priest, for if he had learnt redemption he would feel that every one has to be brought to God the same as he was. Some men are brought into the clergy class who are not really priests at heart, but if you get a downright priest I believe he is a man of corrupt mind and reprobate concerning [p. 479] the faith. Their folly shall be manifest — sooner or later. Take for instance, Irvingism, which sprang up in the present century with a good deal of priest-craft and imposture, but their folly became manifest.
Ques What are grievous wolves?
They are a class of persons who take advantage of people to their own advantage. The great mischief of imitation is that they avow they shall produce people as self-denying and devoted as you, but then it is not the product of truth, and what is underneath all this is a corrupt mind and they are reprobate concerning the faith. Anyone taking up that line, man or woman, is reprobate concerning the faith. The apostle goes on to say, “But thou hast been thoroughly acquainted with my teaching”. So again — “And they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles ...” (Acts 2: 42). If you get hold of High Church people they make nothing of doctrine; they give a homily perhaps when they preach, but no doctrine. The sacramental system does not require doctrine, but in Scripture you find everything is made of doctrine. “Thou hast fully known my doctrine” (2 Timothy 3: 10). “Take heed to thyself and the doctrine” (1 Timothy 4: 16). Whenever the Spirit of God comes in, He comes in by doctrine. So Luther came in by doctrine. The tendency of evangelicalism was to get back to doctrine, they got away from sacramentalism. A clergyman whom I knew in early days said in a meeting that the distance between sacramentarians and evangelicals was as broad as the abyss between truth and error. Doctrine is everything if we are saved by faith, which is what we believe to be the truth. There was not a single bit of officialism about the apostles. I think they were conscious of spiritual power. They said of Paul — “But his presence in the body weak ...” (2 Corinthians 10: 10). I do not believe that any one who cares for spiritual power cares a bit for officialism, it is not good enough.
Ques Why is purpose before faith in verse 10?
[p. 480] It is with a man of purpose that faith comes in. If you get a shilly-shallying man you do not get faith. If a man is a man of purpose he can count upon God for his path, he has faith to carry out his purpose. Then follow qualities which (purpose and faith) would make a man extremely individual, enable a man to go on with others; so you get long-suffering, patience and love. A man could not do without purpose and faith, but these of themselves will make a man isolated, but a servant of the Lord has to come in contact with others, then it is he needs patience, long-suffering, etc. A man who is going on with the Lord and the truth is bound to come into persecution and affliction. Storms are raised up in opposition to the truth in the course of everyone who is going on with the truth in purpose and faith. You see it in Luther’s case. He had not gone far till a storm was raised up, and I have no doubt he had many counsellors who advised him to give up. The question is — will he hold to the truth?
The apostle speaks of himself in a remarkable way here (verses 10 and 11); it was not egotism, it was because he was so entirely free from himself that he could thus speak. What the apostle says of himself is to me what I should call a man. I do not think an athlete is a man — a lump of flesh and muscle. See the qualities which marked the apostle, and whatever storms and afflictions he is in, he comes out of them. The Lord is a great reality to the apostle. He appropriates the Lord in a wonderful way. “The Lord stood by him” (Acts 23: 11). Oftentimes in storms your friends become timid, and they are your greatest trials then. No man is really strong unless he has the Lord. I would not look to the greatest man on earth for light or guidance. The Lord alone can give light; I look to heaven for light.
Sacramentalism and new creation do not go together. The new man does not need sacramentalism or priest-craft. The only thing you want administration for is [p. 481] your baptism; you cannot bury yourself, and this is the only act of administration I know of in Christianity, and for this reason, that is that we cannot bury ourselves. In Christianity baptism is burial, but sacramentalism makes it life. Things are so turned upside down. The moment you come into life you come into fellowship, and fellowship does not admit of the idea of supremacy, it is participation in common, and the only supremacy is the Lord, but if admitted on the part of man you deny fellowship.
Ques What does it mean “To live piously in Christ Jesus”?
That is in connection with the second Man. The practical difficulty in Christian life is to ignore the man that is here. People are continually wanting to recognise the man that is here. If they have children they will go and ask favours and seek influence on their behalf. If I did so I should be recognising the man that is here. If I live piously in Christ Jesus I trust God for my family — I do not recognise the man that is here.
At the end of the chapter you get the place and authority of the Scriptures. Here we get the Spirit’s idea of the Scripture. The more you study Scripture and get beneath the surface into the spirit of it, then you become conscious that every Scripture is divinely inspired (God-breathed). I have not an atom of confidence in higher criticism and the like. If they were avowed enemies to Christianity it would not be so bad, but I believe they are corrupt in mind and traitors. I believe if the spirit of Scripture was laid hold of, a man of God would be thoroughly furnished. We have not the literal apostasy, but we have apostate Christianity. What we have all around is apostate — there is nothing like Christianity proper at all. The man of Christendom is apostate.