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encouraged to look forward to the glorious day of standing up from the dead, rejoicing
that, in spite of all opposition, the foundation of God standeth. We should, consequently,
be diligent to stand beside God, knowing that He will stand beside us, and should stand
around, or aloof, from profane babblings, and stand away from iniquity. Even more than
all this is crowded into the exhortation of II Tim. 2: 15. Timothy would know the
exhortation of Eph. 6: to "stand", "stand against" and "withstand", and only those who
have personally assimilated the many and wonderful occurrences of istemi and its
combinations can hope to gather from II Tim. 2: 15 a tithe of its encouragement,
warning and strength. This may sound like hard work. It is. A workman is being
addressed and he has been exhorted to use diligence. While it is not practical to set out
all these items, a little more attention must be given to the word translated "shew".
Paristemi, "shew", is translated "To present" in the following passages:--
"That he might present it to Himself a glorious church" (Eph. 5: 17).
"In the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and
unreprovable in His sight" (Col. 1: 22).
"Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom that we
may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus" (Col. 1: 28).
The two latter references bring before us two aspects of truth. In the former of them
presentation has no reference whatever to our works, our service, our growth, or anything
we have done or can do: all is based upon the death of Christ. But in the latter the
presentation has to do with service, with going on unto perfection, with growth and with
reward (Col. 2: 18). This aspect is similar to that of II Tim. 2: 15, where Timothy is
exhorted to "present himself", an exhortation completely foreign to the outlook of
Col. 1: 22. In thus exhorting Timothy Paul encourages him by recounting how the Lord
had "stood with" him.
Again, service is in view, and in both chapter 2: and 4: we have the crown as a
reward. Whether any member of the One Body will stand before the judgment seat of
Christ or not, it is certain that the Colossian saints were assured that their service would
be either rewarded, or otherwise (Col. 3: 24, 25), and Paul looked forward to the award
of a righteous Judge (II Tim. 4: 8). Consequently when we realize that paristemi occurs
in Rom. 15: 10, "We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ", it is evident,
with Col. 1: 28, 3: 24, 25 and II Tim. 4: 8 in mind, that something parallel is intended
in Paul's exhortation to Timothy. We must now give attention to the one great thing that
Timothy was to aim at: "Be diligent to present thyself approved unto God."
"APPROVED." The original word is dokimos, and, like istemi, the ramifications of
the word and its combinations are too wonderful to be appreciated apart from personal
acquaintance with them. We will, however, draw attention to a few obvious features.
First of all, we note that the structure places dokimos, "approved", (II Tim. 2: 15) over
against "adokimos", "disapproved", (II Tim. 3: 8). The root of the word is dokeo, and
implies the passing of an opinion after weighing the evidence, hence it is sometimes
translated "experience", and "proof". The form dokimos is found in the LXX in the sense
of the refining and purifying of metals, and dokimion is used by Peter when comparing