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It is easy to go wrong at the outset of this new section. Just as the testimony of
II Cor. 3: 6 can be distorted from the intended meaning of the Apostle--where the letter
that kills stand for the law of Moses, and can be made to mean, what he most certainly
never taught, that it did not so much matter whether we kept to the literal teaching of the
Scriptures so long as we caught its "spirit", a fantasy that has opened the door for much
false teaching and false freedom--so II Tim. 2: 14 may very easily be misunderstood.
The Apostle has insisted in this very epistle upon the necessity of having "a pattern of
sound words", and in contending earnestly for the faith, it often becomes an absolute
necessity that we must "strive about words".
In this solemn charge the Apostle uses the expression logomacheo, which word
occurs, in noun form, in the earlier epistle, and in a context that settles the meaning of the
passage before us.
"If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of
our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud,
knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy,
strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute
of the truth" (I Tim. 6: 3-5).
There can be no possible comparison between such perverse disputings, and the
patient and loving investigation of the believer into the very words of inspired truth,
which he desires to hold fast in the face of all opponents.
The Apostle has made frequent reference to these false teachers, their doctrines, and
their methods, and as, if we are to purge ourselves (II Tim. 2: 21), we must have some
knowledge of this side of the matter, we will at once acquaint ourselves with the inspired
words of warning.
"Teach no other doctrine" (I Tim. 1: 3).
"Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions"
(I Tim. 1: 4).
"Some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling" (I Tim. 1: 6).
"Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof
they affirm" (I Tim. 1: 7).
"There are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the
circumcision" (Titus 1: 10).
"Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the
truth" (Titus 1: 14).
"Avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the
law; for they are unprofitable and vain" (Titus 3: 9).
"O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain
babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called" (I Tim. 6: 20).
What are the "endless genealogies"? What are these "antitheses of knowledge, falsely
so called"? What are these "strivings about the law"? We do not know with any
certainty.
"In the epistle to the Colossians St. Paul had dealt formally with the pretended
philosophy and vaunted insight, the incipient dualism, the baseless angelology, and the