2 Timothy 2:2 - Homilies By T. Croskery

Admonition to Timothy respecting the appointment of faithful preachers.

At such a period of unfaithfulness and timidity, it was necessary to provide for the continuous wants of the Church.

I. THE TRUST TIMOTHY IS TO DELIVER TO FAITHFUL MEN . "The things which thou heardest from me among many witnesses."

1 . Timothy heard these things from the apostle at his ordination, but oftener still during his long missionary travels, when he would hear the apostle discourse to large and varied congregations of both Jews and Gentiles.

2 . The substance of his Trenching would be the grand outlines of Pauline theology, as they are exhibited in the Epistles, Jesus Christ being the central theme.

3 . There is nothing here to countenance the Roman idea of tradition, as if Timothy was to transmit a body of oral instruction to the latest generations, through successive generations of teachers. The instructions in question are actually contained in the Scriptures, and are no longer committed to the doubtful custody of human memory.

II. THE PERSONS TO WHOM THE TRUST WAS TO BE COMMITTED . "The same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also."

1 . Timothy was to judge of their qualifications. They were not to judge of their own fitness; they were not to find their place as teachers by self-appointment.

2 . Their ordination in itself was to be no qualification; for they might possibly have been wholly destitute of teaching gifts. There is nothing in the passage to justify the idea of apostolic succession.

3 . Their qualifications were to be twofold.