A Stubbornness That Is Meek

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “II Timothy” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, June 5, 1988.

Sermon transcript

Our scripture reading this morning is again from 2 Timothy, the latter part of the 2nd chapter. We are reading from verse 22 to the end of the chapter. This is what Paul says to Timothy. Flee also youthful lusts that follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. that foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender stripes. For the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. if God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. There are those who, in treating these later verses in 2 Timothy 2, there are those who have concluded that Paul here has surrendered to something of a contradiction, and that his spirit, for whatever reason, has been compromised and he has given in to an insincerity. We note his words and how they are certainly overlaid with that message that is intended to bring peace.

Paul speaking to Timothy, a pastor in the church in the first century, and his message to him being one intended to bring peace, to bring harmony, to advance unity. These words, however, as intended for harmony as they may be, seem to be undermined by what Paul has said in other portions in this letter. And because of this apparent contradiction, questions have arisen as to Paul’s genuineness or his consistency throughout his ministry and the testimony that we have concerning him in his letters in his dealings with the church as a whole. You see, Paul seems here quite ironic.

But if you back up a bit in the chapter, you will notice that he has some rather harsh things to say about a few people. He isn’t all that kind when it comes to Hymenaeus and Philetus, mentioned in verse seventeen. Neither is he all that kind when he makes mention of Phagellus and Hermogenes in the first chapter, the fifteenth verse. And what do we do with his statement concerning Alexander, in the last chapter, the fourteenth verse, Alexander the coppersmith, did me much harm. And almost as if this apostle could forget the words of Christ from the cross, or Stephen, while he has been stoned, he goes on to say, the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. How does one take seriously these words of Paul at the end of the second chapter? Pursue peace, he says. Don’t be quarrelsome, he says. Refuse to fight. Be gentle. Paul seems to be, at points, anything but gentle. In fact, he seems at times to be downright argumentative, combative, feisty. You might even say that at points Paul seems to be intent upon picking a good fight.

He certainly is not going to let the point at which he has been opposed pass unnoticed. So obviously there is a stubbornness in this man that The Lord, by His Spirit, has it has yet dealt with. Obviously, this man has not progressed in his sanctification far enough to be delivered from this sort of railing, combativeness.

Oh yes, Paul is a stubborn man. and he would wish Timothy to be a stubborn man too but stubborn as heaven is stubborn stubborn as God himself is stubborn not that there isn’t a stubbornness that is rightly judged foolish and wicked a stubbornness that is truly an evil and undebatable. But we must be careful when dealing with this matter of stubbornness to exegete it right and categorize it properly. We best ask about what, in fact, this person who is exhibiting such stubbornness is stubborn about.

And whether that stubbornness is born of God or the Earth. You see, there is a stubbornness for the sake of the truth. There is a stubbornness which glorifies God. A stubbornness that is for our good. A stubbornness that is commendable. But that stubbornness which is evil. It is pervasive.

And we are familiar with it. We are even familiar with it in ministers of the gospel, those who have assumed the office of preaching the Word. Many times, ministers have arisen throughout the history of the Church, no less in the first century when Paul preached, who were no better than willful children and acted like willful children, seeing the world no bigger than their selfish hearts. We’ve all witnessed the stubbornness of that wrong sort, the stubbornness that is found in the child.

The child spoiled rotten, if you will. Maybe not spoiled, rotten, but nonetheless immovable. I don’t know about you, but when I became a parent, I became something of an expert in child rearing. Not only with regard to my own children, but everybody else’s. But I have noticed a few things. I became a bit more observant, if not a bit more critical. But I can remember sitting in a doctor’s office And watching this adventure develop in front of my eyes, now it’s probably not unlike what some of you have witnessed.

It was one of these classic encounters between the iron-willed child and the helpless, hopelessly, what shall I say, inept parent. Now in this particular adventure, as it unraveled, it seems that in this specific relationship, this mother and child had gotten beyond the point of bribes with sweets. It was down to the matter of hard cash for money.

If you will but comply, my dear child, I will pay you handsomely. Now, if you’re like me, not necessarily of course, but if you’re like me, you’re sitting there ready to pull your hair out. You want to go right over and grab the kid. Tell him you have a few things to say, you’re going to take him outside and get him. Well, it wasn’t just the doctor’s office. I’ve witnessed the same things in supermarkets, ball games and choreopolis, any number of circumstances. I expect that you have witnessed similar things.

The self-absorbed child turning a home literally into a slave camp in which parents are reduced to servitude, bowing to every whim and desire of this midget-sized Pharaoh. It is too bad that many parents are unaware of the devious and blatantly depraved nature of their children and are incapable of dealing with it. And some are falling prey to a bribery system, the message of which is from the child, if you do not do as I wish, I will hate you. Well, when it’s painted for you in those stark terms, you are deeply offended.

But adults can do the same and ministers can do the same. But when it comes from them, it is not always perceived by the church. Nevertheless, at work is a wicked, persistent, stubbornness, not of the sort of which Paul held, advocated, endorsed. The kind that literally terrorizes a congregation. The kind that holds up, as if at gunpoint, a church. We are not here dealing with the Lord’s bond servants.

We are actually dealing with children in men’s bodies. And these infants in adults bodies are as it were frozen in a sort of perpetual adolescence. What do you think of that opening phrase? from Paul in verse twenty two. Three youthful lusts. Do you really think that the apostle at this point is limiting his discussion to those kind of activities that we associate with the lusts of the flesh, a sort of carnality the sensuality that has received all too much press space in the last few years with regard to ministers, preachers of the word. I don’t think so at all. I think that, yes, those things may well be included, something much more comprehensive is in view. What about this perpetual adolescent who is always making his needs, his agenda, his hopes and dreams, his ministry, his vision for you, the focus of your life?

There is a wider application, you see, to these words from Paul to Timothy. Over against, then, a proper stubbornness which the apostle will insist upon, that wicked and immature stubbornness that is born of selfishness, the exaltation of the self, for the sake of which we are all left breathless. But how glorious, how glorious the stubbornness of Paul over against this petulance, this adolescent petulance.

Stubborn for righteousness, faithfulness, love, peace, insisting upon these things, quarreling against the quarrels, fighting against the fighters, Adamant in it, kind, yes, stubbornly kind and masterfully kind. Gentle, yes, but a gentleness that doesn’t contradict a strength exhibited and the propriety of that strength asserting itself because, you see, it’s reflective of the certainty and the absoluteness of heaven. And for the sake of that, there will be no compromise. How might we judge this proper kind of argumentativeness? The appropriateness of the kind of fighting that the Apostle Paul would be engaged.

We’ll think for a moment. And if he doesn’t fight for you, you’re lost. You think for a moment of Timothy. Paul doesn’t fight for him. He’s lost. We came in. As the spirit exhibited in the criticisms of Paul writing out of a passage like this, Tell us we cave in and imagine that the meekness of our Savior contradicts his stance. We believe that his soft answer contradicts the propriety of his might. And that is not true. For even in these verses, laid as they are in the message of harmony and peace and gentleness there is a deliberate feistiness and Paul insists upon that and for the sake of it for the sake of it he would even die your God stubborn.

Rightfully so. Your Savior. Stubborn rightfully so. The Apostle the same. And for the sake of the truth. Any minister with his son. May God grant us mature men for his church. May you pray to that end, and they with wisdom from God, understanding these things, may they lead you in good and proper paths. Let us pray. Our Lord, we are mindful of the immovability of your purpose and how we rejoice in your steadfastness may we be found to be of that same spirit that when the truth is in the balance we are as adamant as you and certainly as adamant as the apostle whom you have sent and encourage us Lord in the knowledge that this stand by us after you is no contradiction to the gentleness and meekness that is prescribed by the apostle and by you and your son. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

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