REQUIREMENTS OF JEHOVAH'S SERVANTS
2 Timothy 2:24-26

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"And a servant of the Lord ..." The Greek word translated "servant" (doulos) is one who gives himself up to another's will, one who is devoted to another to the disregard of his own interests. A "servant of the Lord" is a willing bondservant of Jehovah, one who says to Him, "I will not go away from You" (as in Deuteronomy 15:16). He is the opposite of the "slave of sin" and willing servant of the devil (John 8:34, 44). Jesus Christ is the Servant of Jehovah par excellence (Philippians 2:7; see "Servant of Jehovah" passages in Isaiah 42:1-9; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12), and the Exemplar for all Jehovah's servants (Philippians 2:6.) Every believer is a servant of the Lord (as Simeon in Luke 2:29). But Paul here addresses specifically gospel ministers (see context; cp. Colossians 1:7; 4:7). However, what Paul here says of gospel ministers specifically may have applications to all believers generally. Jehovah's servant ...

"... must not quarrel ..." ("strive" in KJV; see Proverb 20:3). The Greek word translated "quarrel" (machomai) and its family (including mache) is never used in the New Testament in a positive sense. Its meaning is "to fight". Such "fights" arise from sinful lusts (James 4:1f).

Fighting is quite common in false religion. Many sectarians, both professedly Christian and anti- Christian, boast of being "militant fighting Fundamentalists". Many take the fighting mentality quite literally. Some wage crusades and jihads and other holy wars against those they consider infidels. Some instruct even little children how to be "martyrs for the faith" by committing suicide resulting in mass murder. Some gain disciples at the tip of the sword, commanding them to "Convert or die!"

For other sectarians, fighting involves only wars of words. For example, Alexander Campbell (1788-1866), founder of the Campbellite sect[s], candidly admitted, "And we are fully persuaded that a week's debating is worth a year's preaching ... for the purpose of disseminating truth and putting error out of countenance." His disciples today are notorious for their challenges to all to dispute with them on religious subjects.

But the servant of Jehovah "must not quarrel" or "strive". "But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife [mache] " (the verse immediately preceding our present text; "foolish" is moros, whence "moron"; "ignorant" is apaideutos, meaning "childish"). "But avoid foolish ["moronic"] disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings [mache] about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless" (Titus 3:9). This is true of our Exemplar (Matthew 12:18f / Isaiah 42:1f): Jehovah says, "My Servant whom I have chosen ... will not quarrel [erizo, syn. to machomai] nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets." The servant of Jehovah is not only to avoid quarreling, ...

"... but be gentle to all, ..." A contrast is here presented between fighters and gentlemen. Satan's ministers are fighters, who for their own gain enslave, devour, rob, and smite men – even their own disciples (2 Corinthians 11:13, 20). Many religious people are typified by the moderator of a certain religious Internet forum who graphically portrays himself as Darth Vader, and explicitly characterizes himself as "Mean, Harsh, and Arrogant" – even to his peers. Jehovah's servant would be instead a "gentle" man. The Greek word "gentle" (epios) means "affable, mild". Christ our Exemplar is so gentle that "A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench" (Matthew 12:20 / Isaiah 42:3). Paul says, "We were gentle (epios) among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children" (1 Thessalonians 2:7). Jehovah's servants would be the truest gentlemen, and ...

"... able to teach, ..." A contrast is here presented between religious quarrelers and Christian teachers, those with a proclivity to dispute the truth and those with the mission to explain it. The phrase "able to teach" is one Greek word (didaktikos). It is found in only one other text (1 Timothy 3:2), where it is cited among the qualifications of a bishop. The servant of Jehovah is not a disputer of religious issues, but rather a teacher of Christ. He is "teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ" (Acts 5:42; cp. 28:31). "For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2). Whereas the religious "disputer of this age" brags about his debating being the best means of gaining disciples (as did the afore-cited Alexander Campbell), the Christian teacher confesses "it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe" (1 Corinthians 1:20f). In teaching others he must also be ...

"... patient, ..." ("forbearing" in KJV). The Greek word (anexikakos: anecho ="endure" + kakos ="evil") appears nowhere else in the New Testament. It means "patient of ills and wrongs, forbearing". Jehovah's servant is encouraged, "But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: ... when He was reviled, [He] did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously" (1 Peter 2:20-23). Joined to this is ...

"... in humility correcting those who are in opposition, ..." "Humility" (Greek proates) is "meekness" (KJV), as in "the meekness [ proates] and gentleness of Christ" the Exemplar (1 Corinthians 10:1). "Correcting" is from a Greek word (paideuo) meaning "to train children". "Those who are in opposition" (antidiatithemai) are the afore-cited quarrelers (v.24a) who engage in moronic and childish disputes (v.23). If they will ever consent to be taught the truth, the servant of Jehovah must exercise great humility and meekness in instructing and correcting them. Unhappily, they will never desire such correction on their own, but only ...

"... if God perhaps will grant them repentance, ..." "Repentance" (Greek metanoia) means "change of mind". It includes an acknowledgement of one's previous errors resulting in "godly sorrow [that] produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted" (2 Corinthians 7:9-11). It is always accompanied by saving faith in Jesus Christ, for we read of "the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God" (Hebrews 6:1) and of "repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21; see also Mark 1:15). Paul will now describe this conversion as a radical change in three ways: from ignorance to knowledge (v.25b), from drunkenness to soberness (v.26a), from slavery to freedom (v.26b). God must " grant them repentance" (as also in Acts 11:18) because this change of mind is an act of His free and sovereign grace (Romans 2:4): it is "the goodness of God leads you to repentance." "God perhaps will" ...

"... so that they may know the truth, ..." Jesus Christ is "The Truth" par excellence (John 14:6). We who are led by God's grace to know this person of the truth will come to know also the doctrine of the truth. These are all who have "learned Christ, ... as the truth is in Jesus" (Ephesians 4:20f). Note well that one must repent of his sinful error before he can know the saving truth of Christ. We must turn to Christ in order to know the truth; we do not know the truth in order to turn to Christ. A second result of God granting repentance is ...

"... and that they may come to their senses ..." The Greek word ( ananepho) appears in the New Testament only here, and means "return to soberness". The quarrelers (v.24) who are opposed to the truth (v.25) are metaphorically drunk, intoxicated with their errors and their too-lofty opinions of themselves. Religion vainly offers self-help recovery programs for drunkards; God savingly sobers them to the state of sensibility of man in the original creation before the fall of Adam (Genesis 1:26f & ch.3). Only by His grace can a sinner come to his senses ...

"... and escape the snare of the devil, ..." The whole human race fell into Satan's snare in the Garden of Eden (cp. Genesis 3:1-8 & Romans 5:12ff). But these quarrelers in opposition to God are repeatedly falling further and further into his snare (see 1 Timothy 3:7; 6:9). They may boast of being able to free themselves by their own freewill and good works, but even these are "their idols, which became a snare to them" (Psalm 106:35). Only Jehovah's free and sovereign grace in Jesus Christ can deliver one from the devil's snare, ...

"... having been taken captive by him to do his will." And they willingly perform Satan's will! Jesus said of them, "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do" (John 8:44): It is Satan's desire that his captive servants oppose the truth. And his lackeys are as willing to quarrel about the truth as Jehovah's servants are to teach and preach it.

How is it with you, dear soul? Are you a condemned captive of Satan, or a liberated captive of Christ? Are you a quarreler of the truth, or a believer in it? Are you a deluded slave of the devil, or a faithful servant of Jehovah?

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