In 1 Timothy 6:5b Paul speaks of those who suppose “godliness to be a means of gain.” They make godliness a way of gain-material profit, a gain-making trade. The desire for material gain is another reason certain ones teach differently from the economy of God taught by the apostles. Thus, because of pride and the desire for profit, for riches, some are teaching differently. Pride is related to wanting a name and a good reputation, and gain is related to money and material profit.
Paul’s Epistles are the completion of the divine revelation concerning God’s eternal purpose and economy (Col. 1:25). His ministry completes the revelation concerning the all-inclusive Christ and His universal Body, the church as His fullness to express Him. Nevertheless, in the degradation of the church, many turned away from Paul’s ministry. “This you know, that all who are in Asia turned away from me” (2 Tim. 1:15). This indicates that the believers in Asia, a province of the Roman Empire, who had formerly received the apostle’s ministry now forsook him. This means that they forsook not Paul’s person but his teaching, his ministry. Among the churches in Asia was the church in Ephesus, which was fully established by Paul’s ministry as recorded in Acts 19. The church in Ephesus received the gospel, the teaching, the edification, and the establishment from the ministry of the Apostle Paul. Nevertheless, due to the ministry of Apollos, the church in Ephesus took the lead to forsake Paul’s ministry. Those who turned away from Paul’s ministry deviated from God’s complete revelation, the center of which is Christ as the mystery in the saints (Col. 1:27).
Some expositors say that 2 Timothy 1:15 points to an apostasy, a departure from the truth. But what was the extent of the apostasy? I believe that “all who are in Asia” points to the general situation among the believers in Asia without including every particular believer. Generally speaking, there was apostasy in Asia.
Second Timothy 2:16-18 says, “Avoid profane, vain babblings, for they will advance to more ungodliness, and their word will spread as gangrene, of whom are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have misaimed, saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and overthrow the faith of some.” Here Paul refers to those who bring in heresies as gangrene. In verse 17 the Greek word rendered “spread” may also be translated “feed” or “eat.” Literally it means “will find pasture,” as in John 10:9. The word for pasture in Greek is the medical term for the consuming progress of a mortifying disease (Alford). Hence, its meaning in verse 17 is to spread. The word “gangrene” denotes an eating sore, a cancer. Paul used such a strong word to describe those who teach differently. He tells us that their word not only advances unto more ungodliness, but that it spreads as gangrene which consumes the flesh and causes part of one’s body to die. This has been the situation among certain dissenting ones.
In verse 18 Paul tells us that concerning the truth Hymenaeus and Philetus have misaimed. The word “misaimed” means to miss the mark, swerve, deviate. Paul does not say that Hymenaeus and Philetus misaimed concerning doctrine or teaching; he says that they misaimed concerning the truth, concerning the reality of the New Testament economy. They swerved from the truth by saying that the resurrection had already taken place. This is to claim that there will be no resurrection. This is a serious heresy, for it denies the divine power in life (1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thes. 4:16; Rev. 20:4, 6).
In 2 Timothy 2:18 Paul also says that by having misaimed concerning the truth, Hymenaeus and Philetus overthrew the faith of some. Faith here is subjective and refers to the act of believing. This subjective faith, our believing act, is very much related to the resurrection of Christ (Rom. 10:9). This subjective faith involves an organic union between us and the Triune God. For one’s faith to be overthrown is to have the inward organic union damaged in some way. This was the overthrowing of their faith.
Those who bring in heresies as gangrene make people wooden and earthen vessels unto dishonor in the great house. “In a great house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also wooden and earthen, and some unto honor, and some unto dishonor” (2 Tim. 2:20). The house of God defined in 1 Timothy 3:15 and 16 is the genuine church in its divine nature and essential character as the foundation of the truth, whereas the great house here refers to the deteriorated church in its mixed character, as illustrated by the abnormally big tree in Matthew 13:31 and 32. In this great house there are not only precious vessels but also base ones. The honorable vessels are of both the divine nature (gold) and the redeemed and regenerated human nature (silver). These, like Timothy and other genuine believers, constitute the sure foundation to hold the truth. Dishonorable vessels are of the fallen human nature (wood and earth). Hymenaeus, Philetus, and other false believers are of these.
The great tree in Matthew 13:32 equals the great house in 2 Timothy 2:20. The church should be like an herb to produce food, but it became a “tree,” a lodge for birds, having its nature and function changed. (This is against the law of God’s creation, that every plant must be after its kind-Gen. 1:11-12.) Instead of producing food for nourishment, the great tree is good only for lodging “the birds of heaven,” which refer to Satan’s evil spirits with the evil persons and things motivated by them. These lodge in the branches of the great tree.
In 2 Timothy 3:1-7 we have a picture of the corrupted situation of the great house mentioned in 2:20. In verse 5a Paul says, “Having a form of godliness, but having denied its power.” A form of godliness is a mere outward semblance without the essential reality. The power of godliness is the real and practical virtue of a living influence to express God. Those who have a form of godliness but deny its power pretend to have godliness but reject the Spirit, which is the power of godliness.
In 2 Timothy 4:3 and 4 Paul says, “The time will come when they will not tolerate healthy teaching, but according to their own lusts they will heap up to themselves teachers tickling the ear, and they will turn away their ear from the truth, and will be turned aside to fables.” The time mentioned here is the time when the decline of the church becomes worse. At that time many will not tolerate healthy teaching, teaching which is healthy in life and which ministers the supply of life. Instead, they will prefer teachers who tickle the ear. This indicates that those who do not tolerate healthy teaching have an itching ear, an ear which seeks pleasing speaking for its own pleasure. Furthermore, such persons will turn away their ear from the truth and will be turned aside to fables. The itching ear that is turned away from the truth is the main factor of the worsening decline in the churches.
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