2 Timothy 1.13-Timothy Must Continue to Adhere to Paul's Apostolic Teaching By Means of Faith Resulting in the Manifestation of Divine-Love
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday March 11, 2015
Second Timothy: Second Timothy 1:13-Timothy Must Continue to Adhere to Paul’s Apostolic Teaching By Means of Faith Resulting in the Manifestation of Divine-Love
Lesson # 19
2 Timothy 1:13 Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. (NASB95)
The apostle Paul is employing the figure of “asyndeton” here in Second Timothy 1:13 meaning he is not using a connective word between his statement in verse 12 and his statement here in verse 13.
The reason for the use of this figure is that Paul wants to emphasize with Timothy the solemn nature of his command here in verse 13 for him to continue to adhere to the sound doctrine which he heard from him in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
“Retain” is the verb echo (ἒχω), which means “to adhere to, to be in a particular condition or state of possessing” a particular object, which is identified by the phrase ὑγιαινόντων λόγων, “sound words.”
To “adhere” to something means one gives support or maintains loyalty and means “to hold fast or stick by, to bind oneself to observance.”
Therefore, this verb means that Timothy was “to adhere” to the sound words he heard Paul teach him in the past and in this epistle.
The verb echo speaks of Timothy exercising faith in Paul’s apostolic teaching after his conversion, which results in obedience to it since faith in the Word of God results in obedience (Hebrews 11:8).
It refers to the fact that after conversion Timothy must continue to possess faith in Paul’s apostolic teaching which communicates the gospel and is sound doctrine.
Consequently, echo also denotes obedience to the gospel, i.e. sound doctrine after conversion.
The present imperative form of the verb echo is a “customary present imperative” whose force is for Timothy to simply continue making it his habit of adhering to Paul’s apostolic teaching which Paul describes as sound words.
“The standard of sound words” is composed of the following: (1) noun hupotupōsis (ὑποτύπωσις), “the standard” (3) verb hugiaino (ὑγιαίνω), “sound” (4) noun logos (λόγος), “of words.”
The verb hugiaino means “to be sound” in the sense of being free from error or falsehood.
It is used to describe Paul’s apostolic teaching which originated from the Lord Jesus Christ, and stood in direct contrast to the false doctrine taught by certain unidentified pastors in Ephesus and the Judaizers whom Paul addresses in First Timothy.
This word appears often in the Pastorals to describe the soundness of the content of the apostle Paul’s teaching in contrast to those who taught false doctrine (1 Timothy 6:3; 2 Timothy 1:13; 4:3; Titus 1:9, 13; 2:1, 2).
As was the case in First Timothy 6:3, the word here in Second Timothy 1:13 is modifying the noun logos, which refers to the content of Paul’s apostolic teaching, which originated from the Lord Jesus Christ.
These two words refer to Paul’s gospel, which is the accepted and authoritative teaching of the church that is free from error or falsehood since it is inspired by the Holy Spirit and originates from the Lord Jesus Christ.
This teaching promotes spiritual growth in the body of Christ as well as godliness which stands in contrast to the false doctrine taught by these unidentified pastors in Ephesus and the Judaizers, which produced ungodly conduct in those who adhered to it.
So the expression ὑγιαινόντων λόγων, “sound words” refers to Paul’s apostolic teaching because he wrote this epistle to encourage Timothy to remain faithful to this teaching despite his imprisonment and impending death and present and future persecution by the Roman government and other opponents.
The noun hupotupōsis appears only once in classical literature and never in the Septuagint and only once twice in the Greek New Testament.
The word means “an example, a model, prototype” or “to a model of behavior as an example to be imitated or to be avoided—‘model, example.’”
Here in Second Timothy 1:13, the noun hupotupōsis means “standard, pattern” and is defined by the expression ὑγιαινόντων λόγων, “sound words” which refers to Paul’s apostolic teaching and describes this teaching as free from error or falsehood.
Therefore, the noun hupotupōsis is referring to Paul’s apostolic teaching.
This word is in the emphatic position in the sentence emphasizing with Timothy that it is imperative that he pattern his teaching after his apostolic teaching.
The word views this teaching as an established tradition that is free from error and speaks of it as the standard by which Timothy was to measure his own teaching ministry.
So this noun speaks of Paul’s teaching as the model which Timothy was to pattern his teaching ministry after in light of the false teachers in Ephesus who followed the false teaching of the Judaizers.
“In the faith and love” is composed of the following: (1) preposition en (ἐν), “in” (2) noun pistis (πίστις), “faith” (3) conjunction kai (καί), “and” (4) noun agape (ἀγάπη), “love.”
As was the case in Second Timothy 1:5, the noun pistis here in Second Timothy 1:13 refers to Timothy’s post-conversion faith in the Word of God and specifically Paul’s apostolic teaching.
The word speaks of Timothy’s post-conversion faith in the Word of God or in other words, his faith in the Spirit’s teaching that is revealed through the communication of the Word of God.
It does not refer to saving faith or justifying faith in Jesus Christ for eternal salvation but rather Timothy’s faith in the Word of God after his conversion since in context Paul is speaking of Timothy’s walk with God after his conversion.
The noun pistis is the object of the preposition en which means “by means of” since it is functioning as a marker of means indicating that Timothy was to obey Paul’s command to continue adhering to the standard of sound words which he heard from the apostle “by means of” faith in Paul’s apostolic teaching.
This indicates that faith in the Word of God results in obedience to the Word of God since adhering speaks of obedience and Paul is commanding Timothy to continue his obedience to his apostolic teaching by means of faith.
The noun agapē means “divine-love” since it does not refer to the function of human love but rather the exercise of divine-love that is produced by the Holy Spirit through the believer who is obedient to the Spirit inspired command of the Lord Jesus Christ to love one another as He loves.
Divine love exercised by Christians is distinguished from the exercise of human love in that the former is a response to God’s love for the Christian and expression of faith in God whereas the latter is based upon the attractiveness of the object.
So the noun agapē is used of the love of God manifested in the life of the Christian when they obey the Spirit inspired command of the Lord Jesus Christ and love their fellow Christian as the Son loves the Christian.
The word refers to God’s love practiced by Christians toward the Lord and their fellow Christians since this is the direct result of his exercising faith in the command in John 13:34.
The conjunction kai is not only joining the concept expressed by pistis, “faith” and that which is expressed by the noun agape, “love” but also it expresses result meaning that faith in the Word of God will result in the believer loving his fellow believer and all men as the Lord loves all men (cf. Galatians 5:6).
“In Christ Jesus” is composed of the following: (1) preposition en (ἐν), “in” (7) proper name Christos (Χριστός), “Christ” (8) proper noun Iesous (Ἰησοῦς), “Jesus.”
Christos denotes the Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth, thus He is the Deliverer of the human race in three areas through His death, resurrection, ascension and session: (1) Satan (2) Cosmic System (3) Old Sin Nature.
The Lord’s Messiahship has a four-fold significance: (1) Separation unto God. (2) Authorization from God. (3) Divine enablement. (4) The coming Deliverer.
This word contains the figure of “metonymy” meaning that the Person of Christ is put for His authoritative teaching to love one another as He loves which is directed to His body and future bride.
Christos is the object of the preposition en which is a marker of “cause” indicating that the love of God manifested in the life of Timothy as a result of his exercising faith in Paul’s apostolic teaching is “based upon” the teaching of Lord Jesus Christ.
Second Timothy 1:13 Continue to make it your habit of adhering to the standard of sound words which you heard from me by means of faith resulting in divine-love which is based upon the teaching of Christ who is Jesus. (My translation)
The apostle Paul solemnly commands Timothy to continue making it his habit of adhering to the standard of sound words which he heard from him.
He was to do this by means of faith in his apostolic teaching which Paul describes as “the standard of sound words.”
This faith will result in Timothy manifesting the love of God in his life.
The apostle then says that this divine-love is based upon the teaching of Jesus Christ since he taught the church to love one another as He loves.
Therefore, we can see that Timothy was to remain faithful to Paul’s apostolic teaching by exercising faith in this teaching which would result in Timothy manifesting the love of God in his life and this love is based upon the teaching of Jesus Christ who taught the church to love one another as He loves.
The reason Paul issuing this solemn command for Timothy to continue to remain faithful is that the apostle’s death is imminent and secondly there is the threat of false teaching in Ephesus and specifically the false teaching of the Judaizers which is addressed by Paul in First Timothy.