2 Timothy 2:15-26 - Homiletics

The skilful workman.

Besides the concentration of purpose, and the willingness to endure, which are necessary to the faithful minister of Christ, two other qualifications are no less needed. The one is skill in his work; the other is gentleness and patience in dealing with those that oppose themselves. By skill in his work we mean both the knowing what to avoid and shun, and the effective handling of the Word of truth. The minister of Christ who wastes his time, and spends his strength in foolish and unlearned questions and profane babblings; who strives about words to no profit; who dabbles with philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, and not after Christ; who intrudes into things which he hath not seen, bringing in strange doctrines and carnal ordinances, and laying burdens upon the consciences of his hearers, which God has not laid;—however earnest he may be, and however willing he may be to endure trouble in defence of his teaching, is not a workman approved unto God, or one that needeth not to be ashamed of his work. He builds upon the foundation hay and stubble, instead of gold and costly stones. But the skilful workman shuns this. He will not allow himself to be enticed into unprofitable controversies, or fritter away his zeal upon things of no moment. But he bends all the powers of his mind to divide rightly the Word of truth. Holy Scripture is his model. What is made much of in Scripture he makes much of in his teaching. He endeavours to preserve the relative proportion of doctrines which he finds in the inspired pages; to treat of doctrine and of practice in the same way that they are treated of in the Word—to speak as do the oracles of God. His aim is neither to exaggerate nor to attenuate; to speak soberly, hut not to speak coldly; to say nothing that ought not to be said, and to leave unsaid nothing that ought to be said. Thus will he be a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, "rightly dividing the Word of truth." The other qualification is scarcely less important. "The Lord's servant must not strive." He must meet contradiction, opposition, gainsaying, with gentleness, meekness, and love. The voice of his Master was not heard in the street, lifted up in anger, or crying out in wrangling and disputes. He neither reviled his revilers nor threatened his persecutors. His servant must be like him. Loving, forbearing, patient, apt to teach, with a burning desire to save his opponents, he must go on his work, despairing of none, wearied out by none, praying for all, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and bring them out of the captivity of sin into the glorious liberty of the children of God.