2nd Timothy Chapter 2 verse 25 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 25. - Correcting them for instructing those, A.V.; peradventure God for God peradventure, A.V.; may for will, A.V.; unto the knowledge for to the acknowledging, A.V. Correcting (παιδεύοντα), παιδεύειν means properly to "educate," "bring up," or "train" a child. Hence sometimes the idea of teaching predominates, sometimes that of correcting or chastising. Here the context shows that the idea of teaching is pre-dominant - partly because the word suggests something contrary to the ἀπαίδευτοι ζητήσεις of ver. 23, and partly because the end of this παιδεία is to bring them to the knowledge of God's truth. The A.V. "instructing" is therefore the right word here. Them that oppose themselves (τοὺς ἀντιδιατιθέμενους); only here in the New Testament or the LXX., or in classical Greek. Literally, those who arrange or set themselves in opposition; or, in one word, "opponents," referring, no doubt, chiefly to such ἀντιλέγοντες as are mentioned in the very similar passage, Titus 1:9 (see too Titus 2:8). If peradventure (μήποτε). "Μήποτε, in later Greek, loses its aversative meaning ('lest at any time'), and is almost equivalent to εἴποτε (Alford, in loc.) - equivalent to "in case God should," etc. Repentance (μετανοία); such a change of mind as shall lead them to embrace the truth. Knowledge (ἐπίγνωσις); almost invariably used of the knowledge of God or of God's truth (ch. 3:7; Romans 1:28; Ephesians 1:17; Ephesians 4:13; Colossians 1:9, 10; Colossians 3:10; Titus 1:1; Hebrews 10:26, etc.). The truth; that truth which before they set themselves to oppose, disputing against it and resisting it. The servant of the Lord must never despair of any one, never throw an additional obstacle in any one's way by roughness or harsh speech, and never allow unkind feelings to be roused in his own breast by the perverseness or unreasonableness of them that oppose themselves to him.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(25) In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves.--By "those that oppose themselves," St. Paul alludes scarcely so much to those leading teachers of false doctrine as to those led away by them. In Titus 3:10 we read how these pronounced heretics--no doubt the teachers and leaders of the school--were, after a first and second admonition, to be shunned, were to be left to themselves. These, however, were evidently to be dealt with in a different manner. Their treatment was to be a gentle one. Nothing is here said respecting a first and second admonition only; no hint is given that these are to be shunned. They are clearly not the same as those referred to in Titus 3:10, or above in 2Timothy 2:21 of this chapter, where, again, separation is definitely urged.If God peradventure will give them repentance.--The Greek original here also carries out what was said in the Note on the last clause, and may be rendered literally, if perchance at any time God might grant to them . . . This suggests a hope at least that at some time or other God's grace would work in these "opposing" members of the congregation a change. The "repentance" here signifies an abandonment on the part of those erring Christians of that wrong course on which they had entered, and a return to the true Church of God and to the full knowledge of the gospel truth.