“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
“So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will” (2 Tim. 22-26).
For the minister, the Christian life is both hunter and hunted. On the one hand he is to flee youthful passions and lusts (v. 22). It is important to note here that Paul is warning Timothy against certain sins associated with youth, and he is doing this several decades after he first met Timothy — which means that Timothy was probably a teenager when he first began traveling with Paul. It is several decades later, and he still must flee youthful passions. Those lusts pursue him like a predator pursues its prey. And yet, at the same time, it is not enough to simply run away. Joseph did not just flee Potiphar’s wife, but also pursued the blessing of God upon his life, which he obtained. In this scenario, Paul tells Timothy to chase down righteousness, faith, love and peace, and to do so alongside everyone who calls on the Lord with a pure heart (v. 22). Here we see the minister straining toward holiness together with all the people of God. He not hired to be holy instead of them, but rather called to holy along with them.
Paul also tells him to stay out of stupid wrangles. He does not say to avoid questions, but rather “foolish” and “ignorant” controversies. Paul himself was in many controversies, including some which his enemies could easily have represented as foolish and ignorant. Why disturb the peace of the church at Antioch because you disapproved of the seating arrangements at the potluck? No, Paul here is talking about controversies that really are stupid strife-generators (v. 23). If the servant of the Lord must not be pugnacious, then he should stay out of controversies that stir up that kind of thing (v. 24). Instead of strife, the minister of God must be gentle to everyone, able to teach, and patient (v. 24). When teaching the ignorant, he must always remember that they don’t know what they don’t know. Some of them will be belligerent, and they are to be opposed in meekness (v. 25). And if you make the common mistake of confounding meekness with weakness, then you should consider something my father taught me — if you think meekness is weakness, try being meek for a week. Meekness is opposed to those who oppose, in the prayer that God will do what only God can do, which is to grant the gift of repentance (v. 25). When God gives living repentance, it is the kind that that results in acknowledging the truth. When they do this, they are recovered from the snare of the devil (v. 26), and it was gentleness and meekness that dismantles that trap.