2 Timothy – Week 4 – Day 2

READ 

2 Timothy 2:16-18 

16 Avoid worthless, foolish talk that only leads to more godless behavior. 17 This kind of talk spreads like cancer, as in the case of Hymenaeus and Philetus. 18 They have left the path of truth, claiming that the resurrection of the dead has already occurred; in this way, they have turned some people away from the faith. 

Paul had reminded Timothy earlier to tell his people to stop fighting about words. Then Paul referred to “foolish talk that only leads to more godless behavior.” It will spread like “cancer” a word derived from “gangrene.” Paul referred to two specific men who taught something regarding the end times that was untrue. This would lead to confusion and disunity among God’s people. That was contrary to what Paul taught. 

REFLECT 

Does this help you to better understand why the truths of the Bible need to be taught correctly? 

RESPOND 

Read 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 to see conditions that must exist before the “man of lawlessness” is revealed. That person will seat himself in the Temple and demand to be worshiped as God. Those conditions had not come to pass so the believers in Paul’s time could not have missed the catching up, or rapture, of Church-age believers.