Most of us do not experience a commissioning service very often. Typically, they are done for a new minister or for a missionary who is about to leave for the field, whether at home or abroad. The person or persons are commended to God’s care, and the blessing of God is invoked for their ministry. The last words of Paul to Timothy would be entirely appropriate for such a service. Second Timothy is the letter in which Paul the seasoned missionary imparts his wisdom and prayers for Timothy, who was to follow him in caring for the churches.

You know we have a phrase that says misery loves company. Well we can also say that unbelief loves company. People aren’t happy just refusing to believe all by themselves. They want other people to disbelieve along with them. Some of the greatest zealots for missionary effort, through books, magazines, and from the pulpit, are those who would seek to win Christian or nominally Christian people away from any kind of true faith to this kind of empty religion. Such a religion allows you to do what you please and go to hell in your own way, but gives a veneer of religion to keep you from realizing what is happening while you do it.

The interesting thing about these days as Paul describes them to Timothy is that they refer in this case not so much to the secular world as to the secular church. We get this from verse 5, where Paul writes of those who have a form of godliness but deny its power. Since this cannot be said of the world, which is ungodly, Paul must therefore be talking about people in the church who have a form of godliness—that is, religious people who go through all the rites of religion—but whose lives are characterized by the very kind of things he spells out here. This is the kind of troubling situation Timothy is going to be facing in the future. 

Why does it say in 1 John 1 that God is faithful and just? He is faithful because he has promised to forgive and cleanse us of our sins if we confess them to him. If he promised us this and then didn’t do it, he would be unfaithful; he would be breaking his promises. But he doesn’t break his promises because he is faithful. Therefore, when we come to him we know that he will do for us what he said he will. Why do we know he will keep his promises? Because he doesn’t merely forget about our sin, but, rather, he provides cleansing on the basis of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What does a bad workman do, spiritually speaking? Paul mentions two men who have wandered away from the truth. When we think of wandering away, it sounds similar to what he talked about in verse 15 with handling the truth in a correct and straight way. Certainly, that is a very valid idea, but Paul uses another image that carries with it an interesting element of meaning. The strength of the image is seen in the Greek word he uses here. It’s a word that has the idea of missing a target, which makes us think of archery.